By KUNA,
Kabul : Troops from the Afghan and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) engaged and killed 19 militants in an overnight clash in central Afghanistan, the military said on Saturday.
The Afghan and international forces went on the offensive against “terrorists” in Wardak province, located some 35 kilometres south of Kabul, said a statement. “The fighting continued through the night, resulting in killing of 19 terrorists by small-arms fire, heavy weapons and helicopters,” it added.
The combined forces found caches comprised of various munitions in Jalrez district, while other combined forces disrupted terrorist activity in Nirkh district, claimed the military. Meanwhile an ISAF spokesperson in Kabul said they were investigating reports of civilian casualities in NATO air raid in Helmand province yesterday.
Media reported the killing of several civilians, including women and children, in Helmand province on Friday. However, ISAF refused to comment on the reports at that time. “We have also heard reports of other non-ISAF related incidents around Lashkargah, capital of Helmand province, which may have caused casualties,” said the spokesperson.
All of those unrelated incidents were complicating the ongoing ISAF investigations into the alleged civilian casualties, he added.
Therefore, the investigations had been conducted to know what exactly had happened and what caused the civilian deaths.
Meanwhile, an influential elder was shot dead by armed assailants in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar on Saturday morning, local officials said. Ali Ahmad Barakzai, a pro-government elder of the well-known Barakzai tribe, was sprayed with bullets by two armed motorcyclists in front of a mosque where he had just finished his morning prayer.
Zalmay Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar governor, told KUNA over the telephone that Ahmad was killed along with his son in the attack. The assailants managed to fled the scene, he added.
About three weeks back, armed men had killed a top woman police officer Malalay Kakar while on way to her office in the same city, which is known as the stronghold of the ousted Taliban.