Afghan Taliban, Daesh militants killed: Local officials
Date
5/30/2016 6:48:49 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) >At least 26 Taliban andDaeshmilitants have been killed in separate U.S. drone strikes in different parts of Afghanistan, local officials said Monday.
According to ZiaDurrani, a provincial police spokesman, 22 Taliban militants were killed in the Shah Wali Kot district of the southern Kandahar province in a nighttime drone strike. "The drone struckTalibanhideouts inthe KataSang locality,"Durranisaid. Taliban militants have consolidated their position in ShahWaliKotsince the group wrested control of a main highway linking Afghanistan’s Uruzgan and Kandahar provinces, closing the highway to traffic. And inNangarhar province, another two Taliban militants were reportedly killed in a separate U.S. drone strike in the DeBaladistrict. The U.S. has recently stepped up its drone attacks in an effort to pressure the Taliban to resume peace talks with the Kabul government. Meanwhile, inthe Sayedabaddistrict of the Maidan Wardak province some 60 kilometers south of Kabul, an airstrike carried out by a NATO-led coalition reportedly killed a Daesh commander and his bodyguard. In a related development, more than 50 policemen were killed in clashes with Taliban militants in different parts of the southern Helmand province, Afghan Brigadier-GeneralEsmatullahDawlatzai (commander of the 505thBostZone) said. "Twenty-seven policemen were killed and 26 wounded during clashes inthe NadAli district [of Helmand], while another 25 were killed and nine others wounded inthe Grishkdistrict," he said. KarimKhanAtal, a member of Helmand’s provincial council, warned Monday that the entire province could fall to the Taliban if fresh army reinforcements were not dispatched to the area within 48 hours. The AfghanDefenseMinistry, for its part, said the Taliban could not captureprovincial capital Lashkar Gah, maintaining that clearing operations were currently underway in different parts of Helmand.