NATO airstrikes kill 18 militants in Afghanistan

By Zabihullah Tamanna

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) – Gunships of the NATO-led international security force have killed 18 Taliban insurgents Friday evening in Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktika Province, said Afghan officials.

The airstrikes targeted a militant convoy in the Keyan district, which shares a border with Pakistan, according to Afghan officials.

“NATO's precision airstrikes have targeted a convoy of terrorists late Friday evening, killing at least 18 militants and destroying three of their pick-up vehicles,” spokesman for the provincial governor Mukhlis Afghan told Anadolu Agency.

An investigative team was sent to the area to identify the nationality and rank of the deceased.

Afghan said that it was not yet known whether the killed militants had crossed the border from the Pakistani territory.

The Pakistani and Afghan governments have been accusing each other of supporting and arming militants on their own soil and using them as proxy forces against each other’s interests.

It was the first airstrike carried out by NATO-led forces since the end of the International Security Assistance Force's combat mission in Afghanistan on Dec. 31, 2014.

From Jan. 1, 2015, the mission officially evolves into training and advising the nascent Afghan security forces.

The 13,000 foreign troops for the Resolute Support Mission come from 28 NATO allies and 14 other partner nations.

Paktika, a province that borders Pakistan, is known to be a stronghold of the notorious Haqqani network, which has been blamed for many deadly attacks on local and international security forces.

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