36 fighters killed in airstrikes, clashes

LASHKARGAH/GHAZNI CITY (PAN, officials claimed in Friday.

Foreign forces conducted airstrike in different areas of Marja district in Helmand province late on Thursday, coordination official at the police headquarters said.

Seven fighters from Pakistan’s tribal region of Waziristan were killed in the Ismat bazaar and another 25 in Sistani areas of the district in air raids by foreign troops.

The official told Pajhwok Afghan News on condition of anonymity the strikes took place near a base of NATO-led soldiers, who have not yet commented on the incidents.

Omar Zwak, the Helmand governor’s spokesman, confirmed the airstrikes but had no further details.

Elsewhere in the south, four Taliban were killed during a clash with Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province.

An ALP member also died in the encounter that left two rebels wounded, said the district chief, Fazlur Rahman Nazarwal, who said the 90-minute gunbattle was touched off by a Taliban attack on an ALP post.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, said the fighters had killed Afghan several security personnel in bomb attacks and clashes in Helmand.

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