Children among 8 dead in Kunduz clashes

KABUL): A seven-year-old girl and her 12-year-old neighbour were killed when a stray rocket hit their homes during clashes between insurgents and security forces in the Chahar Dara district of northern Kunduz province, residents said on Wednesday.

Six insurgents were killed, seven wounded and four others were arrested during clashes with a joint Afghan- ISAF force in Esakhel, Haji Amanullah and Zadran villages of the district, according to the governor’s spokesman, Syed Sarwar Hussaini.

Residents said two civilians were killed and five others were wounded when a rocket hit two homes in the Esakhel village.

Ajmal Pardis, a school principal, said a mortar shell hit his house, killing his 12-year-old son and a 7-year-old girl at his neighbour house. Pardis, his two other sons and a brother were injured in the incident.

A small brother of the seven-year-old girl was also injured, said the principal, who is under treatment in a hospital run by the Doctors without Borders in Kunduz City.

A relative of Ajmal Pardis, Ihsanullah Pardis, condemned the killing of innocent people during clashes between security forces and insurgents. He urged both sides to spare civilians.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihuallah Mujahid, claimed many Afghan security personnel were killed and wounded during the clash in Chahar Dara.

The governor’s spokesman said they had no reports that civilian casualties had occurred in the district.

Elsewhere, a Taliban group leader, Mullah Tajuddin, was arrested along with his two accomplices during an operation in Jawzjan province, police chief Col. Abdul Manan Raufi said.

They were detained by Afghan forces in the Aqcha district, he said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said two policemen, including a commander, were killed and their two ranger pick-up vehicles destroyed during a clash in Sarband area of Chekish district.

mds/ma