Security personnel among 5 killed

MAIMANA/PUL-I-KHUMRI (PAN): Two Afghan soldiers, as many policemen and a militant, have been killed in separate incidents in northern Faryab and Baghlan provinces, officials said on Tuesday.

The soldiers were killed and wounded on Monday evening when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the Qara Ghoili area of Almar district in Faryab, the district chief, Mohammad Saleh, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

But a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed 15 Afghan soldiers were killed in the explosion — an assertion rejected as exaggerated by the local authorities.

Separately, a policeman and a Taliban fighter were killed during a clash in the Falol area of Borka district in northern Baghlan province, said Abul Jabbar Islami, the town’s administrative head.

One policeman was killed and another wounded as a rocket shell hit their vehicle in the Anarkhel area of the province, said the governor’s spokesman, Javed Basharat.

myn/mud