Forty Taliban killed in Afghan clashes
Afghan and foreign troops battled with Taliban militants and called in airstrikes in a series of clashes in the country’s south that left 40 insurgents dead, an official said today.
The joint force clashed with militants in the mountainous Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province during a three-day operation that ended yesterday and left 35 insurgents dead, said provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib.
Ten other insurgents were detained near the militants’ mountainous hide-outs, which they used to launch attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the area, Saqib said.
Authorities recovered the militants’ bodies along with their automatic weapons and ammunition, he said.
In Kandahar’s Zhari district, Afghan and foreign troops clashed with another group of militants hiding in a compound on Saturday night, killing five militants and detaining four others, Saqib said.
Among those killed was a regional militant commander, Mullah Faizullah, he said.
There were no casualties among Afghan or foreign troops during the operations, Saqib said.
The reports could not be independently verified because the areas are remote and inaccessible.
This year has been the most violent since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Insurgency-related violence has claimed nearly 6,200 lives, according to a tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.
