KABUL, Afghanistan
By Zabihullah Tamanna
Scores of Taliban militants have been killed in a major attack on army posts in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province and other incidents around the country, police said.
Also Pakistani army killed 23 suspected militants on the fourth consecutive day of air strikes on Taliban hideouts in North Waziristan on Thursday, bringing the death toll to nearly 1200 over the last three months, officials said.
Kunar provincial police chief Abdul Habib Saedkheli said 22 fighters were killed as hundreds attacked Afghan National Army posts in Gahzi Abad district on Wednesday.
He said: “According to our preliminary report, hundreds of Taliban insurgents, including Pakistanis, attacked the army posts in Ghazi Abad district on Wednesday morning. The Taliban, leaving 22 members dead and several others injured on the battle ground, escaped in the evening.”
Two soldiers, a police officer and a child were injured in the attacks, he added.
Kunar, bordering Pakistan, is among the most volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan, where anti-government militants and al-Qaeda members actively operate.
Meanwhile, 35 Taliban militants were killed during anti-insurgent operations across the country.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Interior Ministry said: “Afghan forces have killed 35 Taliban militants and arrested four others during a series of operations conducted in nine provinces, including the capital Kabul, in the past 24 hours.”
The Taliban are yet to comment.
Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Omar Daoudzai again blamed the Pakistan military for supporting the decade-long insurgency in Afghanistan during a session in the Afghan parliament on Wednesday.
He said: “Taliban militants have been fighting against the Afghan government while the Pakistani military stand behind the Taliban and support them.”
Afghanistan is experiencing its bloodiest year since the Taliban were toppled by the US-led coalition in 2001.
Afghan security forces took the lead from the International Security Assistance Force in June last year. The war-torn country is due to take over responsibility for its own security from foreign troops by the end of the year.
More than 33,000-strong NATO-led foreign troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are currently deployed in Afghanistan.
Scores of suspected militants killed in Pakistan
The Inter Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistan army said that military gunships specifically targeted militant hideouts in Zerom, and the Ismailkhel areas of Dattakhel town which lie on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The figures, however, cannot be verified independently because of absence of media in the operation-hit areas.
A demand for verification of the army’s claims regarding militants’ deaths was echoed in Pakistan’s upper house, the senate.
The army launched a much-demanded onslaught on North Waziristan, dubbed as the heartland of militancy by the U.S. and its allies in the so-called 'war on terror', on June 15. The campaign was to eradicate the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella group of various insurgent networks in Pakistan.
A total of 88 soldiers have also been killed in clashes and landmine blasts during this period. The ongoing operation has caused a wholesale migration from various parts of the region forcing nearly a million people to take refuge in the nearby Bannu district.
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