JALALABAD, Feb 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – Scores of militants were killed over the past five days, in eastern Nangarhar province, as the Afghan security forces stepped up the crackdown on them, an army commander in the province said.
According to General Karim Niazi, 22 militants were killed and 11 others injured, in Hisarak and Shirzad districts, over the past 24 hours. Without providing details on the identity of the militants, he added, the security forces operations would last until the insurgents were wiped out.
Both the Taliban and the Daesh group are active in parts of Nangarhar, with Jalalabad as its capital, 120 km east of Kabul.
A number of Taliban and Daesh members, including persons in charge of the intelligence branch of the hardliner Daesh outfit and of the recruitment of fighters for the Taliban group were arrested, over the past weeks in Nangarhar province.
Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar, Laghman and Nuristan provinces, were the scenes of increasing insurgency over the past few years, and the government forces’ operations, forced over 1,000 Daesh fighters to lay down their arms and surrender to local authorities one year ago.
Niazi also noted that, more than 80 militants were killed and injured over the past five days, in parts of Nangarhar province.
The security forces have also discovered and defused 80 anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines during the operations.
“Securing the strategically important Nangarhar would ultimately shrink the activities of militants in neighbouring Kunar, Nuristan and Laghman provinces,” local observer, Saifurahman, said.– NNN-XINHUA
