Major clashes between Taliban and security forces in Afghanistan left 56 rebels dead while an Afghan soldier and a Bangladeshi aid worker were also reported killed, officials said on Thursday.
The deadliest of the incidents on Wednesday was in the province of Uruzgan and kicked off with an ambush on Afghan and coalition troops who called in air support, the United States-led coalition said.
”More than 45 insurgents were killed in the engagement,” said the coalition, which operates alongside a separate Nato-led force to defeat an insurgency launched by Taliban after they were driven from government in 2001.
In the adjoining Zabul province, meanwhile, militants attacked an Afghan and Nato convoy late on Wednesday, sparking a battle in which 11 militants were killed, the provincial government said.
”Eleven militants and one Afghan soldier were killed and two soldiers were wounded in the battle,” provincial spokesperson Gulab Shah Alikhail said.
In the north-eastern province of Badakshan, meanwhile, a Bangladeshi working with a microfinance project was shot dead by unknown gunmen while travelling through a remote area on a motorbike on Wednesday, police and his organisation said.
Two men who claimed to be robbers were arrested for the shooting, provincial police Commander Aqa Noor Kendoz said, without ruling out the possibility they were linked to the Taliban or other militant groups.
Elsewhere, three mine clearers who were abducted a week ago with 10 colleagues were freed late on Wednesday in the south-eastern province of Paktia, police said. The 10 were freed on Monday. Officials have not accused any group of the abductions and the Taliban have not claimed responsibility.
However, the organisation has carried out similar kidnappings, including that of 23 South Koreans, two of whom were killed before the remainder were released, most after six weeks in captivity.
The latest violence was on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that started in Afghanistan on Thursday. The Taliban has said it would use the month to launch a new ”operation” involving suicide bombings and other attacks. — AFP
