Kabul : More than 90 militants, including those belonging to the Taliban movement and Al-Qaeda, were eliminated over the past 24 hours in Lashkargah, the capital of the southern Afghan province of Helmand, amid ongoing fighting with the country’s armed forces, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman said Friday.
A total of 94 militants were killed, including a commander of the so-called Taliban special forces, according to Aman.
“#Taliban’s red unit commander for Helmand named ‘Mawlawi Mubarak’ among 94 other terrorists including Taliban & AQIS members were killed & 16 others wounded in the past 24 hrs by Afghan Armed Forces in #Lashkargah,” the ministry spokesman tweeted.
He also noted that, overall, 406 Taliban militants were eliminated and 209 were wounded in the offensive operations by the Afghan National Security Forces in the past 24 hours.
The fighting in Lashkargah reportedly picked up on Sunday. Several TV and radio stations in the province were shut down. On Tuesday, the Afghan national army called on residents to leave Lashkargah so that an operation can be carried out to clear the city of Taliban militants.
Violence in Afghanistan has been on the rise since foreign troops began to withdraw from the country. The troop pullout was a premise of the agreement reached by the Taliban and the United States in Doha in February of last year, conditional upon the radical group ceasing violence and cutting ties with terrorist organizations.
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