Kabul: The US-led coalition, NATO-led ISAF and Afghan officials have said that over one hundred Taliban militants have been killed in direct attacks, air strikes and an explosion at different provinces in the course of two days, Friday and Thursday.
About seven Taliban militants killed in an explosion last night when they were planting a bomb in the Dand district of southern Kandahar province last night.
Hamdullah Nazak, incharge of the district confirmed the incident and said, ‘They were planting bomb on Deh Bagh road when it went off killing about seven militants.’ He also showed a photo of their scattered bodies.
In neighboring Helmand province, a patrol of Afghan National Army and coalition soldiers was attacked in the Nawzad district after which the joint forces used mortars and heavy weapons to foil the attack, and then called precision air strike which left 60 insurgents dead, said a press release issued by the coalition forces’ Kandahar office.
‘The militants tried to hide into the homes of civilian residents, Coalition avoided bombing the houses but one house was damaged. The district was cleared from the militants’ it added.
A British soldier has been killed in this province when his vehicle struck a land mine in the Greshik district one day before the air strike. Similarly NATO and Afghan forces have launched a major military operation in the bordering Musa Qila district to oust the militants and establish government control. Residents of the area were reportedly fleeing the area fearing air strikes and fierce fighting.
There was also a fighting between security forces and the Taliban militants in another southern province, Zabul, where, according to Provincial Governor Spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhil, seven militants were killed and the security forces had not any casualty.
He added that the fighting had occurred in the Shajoy district where the intelligence information suggested that militants were hiding in a compound.
In western Farah province, local ANA Commander General Jalandar Shah told media men that a group of the militants attacked a joint patrol of the Coalition and ANA forces in Khak-e-Safaid district and fighting started which resulted into the killing of 17 militants including their commander Mullah Khudai Dad.
This information was later confirmed by Coalition forces after they issued a statement from Kabul Press Office but Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, the purported spokesman of the militants, has termed it as ‘a false claim’ and said that only civilians were killed in the air strike.
In Eastern Nuristan province, where the Taliban are continuously active, Governor Tamim Nuristani claimed that at least 10 militants were killed and two other arrested in an on-going clean-up operation.
‘The arrested militants are Arabs who are responsible for many attacks and bomb blasts against the ISAF and Afghan forces and innocent civilians’ he said.
As the weather is getting colder every day, it was believed that bitter situation and snow in mountainous areas will stop both parties from the fighting but these incidents indicate that the clash has yet no end and both parties are not ready to give the ill-fated people even a single day chance to live in peace.
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