4 ANA soldiers abducted in Kunduz

KUNDUZ CITY (PAN insurgents seized four Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers in plainclothes from a public transport bus in northwestern Kunduz province, where as many rebels were killed, officials said on Thursday.

The off-duty ANA service-members were travelling on a 303 bus from Kabul to their home province of Badakhshan when suspected insurgents intercepted the vehicle in Khanabad district of Kunduz on Wednesday evening.

The district chief, Hayatullah Amiri, said the troops were captured in Chahar Toot area, but it remained unclear where they had been moved. Police have launched an operation to rescue the soldiers.

Also in Kunduz, four militants were killed during an operation in the Imam Sahib district late on Wednesday, the governor’s spokesman, Syed Sarwar Hussaini, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Amanuddin Quraishi, the town’s administrative head, said another two militants and a policeman were wounded during the ongoing operation that began two days ago.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed seven Afghan soldiers were killed and their two armoured vehicles destroyed during clashes in Imam Sahib.

mds/ma