An airstrike on a large Taliban gathering killed dozens of rebels, the defense ministry said Friday, with at least 30 civilians wounded and unconfirmed reports of many more killed.
The US-led coalition forces said they had conducted a "precision air strike" against two notorious Taliban commanders meeting in the rebel-controlled and remote area of Baghran district in the southern province of Helmand.
The Afghan defense ministry said the gathering was to execute four people on charges of cooperating with the government and had attracted several militant leaders including top Taliban military commander Mansour Dadullah.
"In an aerial operation, tens of terrorists were killed. The bodies of Taliban leaders ... and tens of other terrorists are on the spot and have been identified," he said.
Azimi said officials were trying to confirm if Dadullah, who replaced his notorious brother -- top commander Mullah Dadullah -- after he was killed this year, was among the dead.
"The process of identifying the eliminated terrorists is still ongoing," he said.
There were claims of around 200 civilians also killed or wounded in the attack but Azimi said numbers in the area had been fewer.
"We are investigating the claims of civilians casualties. So far only some wounded have been transferred to hospitals. We doubt the presence of civilians in such gatherings," he said.
wounded
Twenty wounded people were admitted to a hospital in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said. "We fear many more casualties," he said.
A reporter said that 12 wounded, many covered in blood and mud, were in a hospital in Kandahar, about one hour's drive from Lashkar Gah and the largest city in southern Afghanistan. Two were children, he said.
Andiwal said some of the wounded had told him the strike had hit a large number of people gathered to watch the Taliban's public hanging of people they had labelled criminals.
A man named Abdullah Jan, who claimed to have witnessed the incident, said by telephone that around 150 civilians watching the Taliban's public execution were killed or wounded in the air strike.
It was not possible to immediately verify his account.
The Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed however there had been no public execution -- a common practice when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001. He said the crowd had gathered at a shrine.
The US-led coalition said there were no civilians in the targeted area and the force had "actionable intelligence" that two provincial-level Taliban commanders were there.
"During a sizable meeting of senior Taliban commanders, coalition forces employed precision guided munitions on their location after ensuring there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area," it said in a statement.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force which works alongside the coalition said the air strike was only called after multiple sources confirmed that several Taliban leaders and their followers were at the site.
The Taliban-led insurgency that is holding back Afghanistan's attempts to recover after decades of war has intensified this year with the rebels said to control several areas, particularly in the south.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese