Taliban ‘utilized their full strength’ to take strategic areas
Acting Minister of Defense General Yasin Zia in a press conference on Saturday said that the Taliban utilized their full strength in the past week to some of the strategic areas in some six provinces of Afghanistan, but ANDSF foiled and rebuffed all their planning.
Zia added that over 1,000 Taliban fighters have been killed and wounded while encountering Afghan National Defense and Security forces in Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Baghlan, and Herat provinces during this period.
But he did not provide any details on ANDSF casualties, and the Taliban also denied Zia’s claims.
Ahmad Zia Saraj, chief of the National Directorate of Security on his turn assured that the Taliban won’t be able to reach power militarily, he added the “enemy” used its full strength and increased pressures on ANDSF, but they don’t “have more power than this”.
He added that most the Taliban attacks and offensive programs are “planned in Pakistan, especially in Karachi”.
According to Zia a limited number of government employees trying to cooperate with the Taliban will also be dealt with.
In the meantime, National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib said, that all of the groups intending to fight against “terrorism” and the Taliban in Afghanistan must be formed and led under the Afghan military.
The international community including the United States will continue its supports to Afghanistan after the withdrawal process is completed, Mohib said.
Meanwhile in the past days at least 27 security forces were killed in Ghazni province.
According to sources, three government check posts were also fallen to the militant group.
Moreover, the Ministry of Defense in a released communique on Sunday said that at least 18 Taliban including three Pakistani nationals were killed and 15 others were injured in the Shaliz area in the outskirts of Ghazni’s provincial center.
The area was cleared of the Taliban influence, and their hideouts and strongholds were also destroyed.This comes as the death toll from an attack on girls’ school on Saturday has reached 58 and at least 150 civilians were wounded according to the Ministry of Interior.
Most of the victims were children and school girls in the incident.
No one claimed responsibility for the incident, but the Presidential Place in Afghanistan blamed the attack on the Taliban, and called it “a crime against humanity”.
Taliban on the other hand denied being involved in the attack.
The brutal attacks in Afghanistan have become painfully a common thing, a nation rattled with terrifying violence, suicide attacks, rocket barrages, and massive truck bombs for many years.
Head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission tweeted that “I have lost count of attacks on education. I have lost count of civilians killed even just this month. This war must stop. This madness, this hurt, this pain.”
