Between 50 and 70 Taliban-linked militants were killed in air strikes by international forces in eastern Afghanistan early yesterday, a provincial governor said.
The militants had initially stormed a police post in Khost Province near the border with Pakistan, killing two policemen, one of whom was beheaded, provincial governor Arsala Jamal said
International military aircraft were called in to strike back, he said.
PHOTO: EPA
“Taliban attacked one of our police posts. As they retreated, international military air forces came in and bombed them. Fifty to 70 Taliban have been killed,” he said.
“They had killed one policeman in the initial attack and had captured another officer who was later beheaded,” he said.
The governor said he had video footage of the rebels being killed in the strikes in Spera District, on the border.
“I can say with responsibility that 50 to 70 Taliban have been killed. We have video showing they were killed,” he said, when asked how he knew how many had died.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed there had been action in the area but said it was too early to give details.
The rebels had been able to reach “very close” to the district headquarters before the air force arrived, the governor said.
The air strikes were later halted to avoid civilian casualties after the militants moved into villages, he said.
The Taliban, an Islamic militant group leading an insurgency against the Afghan government, which is backed by about 70,000 international troops, were in government between 1996 and 2001.
They were ousted from government in a US-led attack in late 2001 launched after they refused to hand over their al-Qaeda ally Osama Bin Laden, accused of involvement in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing