By KUNA,
Kabul : Taliban have captured an Afghan district, while US troops killed several militants in Ghazni and Helmand provinces of the country and one soldier was killed in a firefight with militants in west.
The remote Rasheedan district of the southern Ghazni province, 90 miles south of Kabul, was overrun by militants last night, police chief of the province Jan Mohammad confirmed Friday.
The assailants captured several policemen guarding the district headquarters, he added, and there was no immediate word about casualties in last night’s attack on the district.
Taliban spokesman Zabeehullah Mujahid, on his part, said a senior officer was among the eight policemen seized by the militants.
Afghanistan’s Ghazni province is a hotbed of insurgency. Like the provinces of Helmand, Zabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan, remote districts in Ghazni come under Taliban attack from time to time.
In the western zone, a member of the US-led coalition was killed during a clash in Farah province, according to a statement released from Bagram military base, north of Kabul.
The coalition, in another statement, said it killed several militants in a joint operation with Afghan security forces in Helmand province on Thursday.
The military said the operation was conducted in Sangeen district of the province.
Besides Sangeen, Musa Qala is another district in Helmand where the Taliban have support.
In yet another statement from Bagram base, the military said they killed several Taliban and detained 16 more in an operation in Andar district of Ghazni province on Thursday.
Lacated less than 15 kilometres from Ghazni City, capital of the province bearing the same name, Andar district is one of the strong bases of Taliban militants.
The army statement said the troops searched compounds in Andar for a militant leader involved in improvised explosive attacks against the Afghan government and coalition forces.
The coalition troops were threatened by the militants during the operation, and the troops responded with small-arms fire, killing several militants and detaining 16 others, said the statement.