A US airstrike killed eight militants including a local Taliban commander in northern Afghanistan, NATO and Afghan officials said yesterday.
The battle against the Taliban in Afghanistan has been expanding increasingly to the whole country, with insurgent cells operating and launching attacks in the west and north, making combating the insurgency more complex amid the replacement of the top commander in the war.
Violence also has been on an upswing in the always volatile south in recent weeks, with deaths reported daily. In the latest incident, a US service member was killed in a bomb attack in the south, Colonel Wayne Shanks, a US forces spokesman said.
This month has become the deadliest of the war so far for NATO troops with at least 91 killed.
Saturday’s airstrike in Kunduz Province was called in on a group of insurgents who were meeting in a field in an unpopulated part of Chahar Darah district, NATO said in a statement. The area, called Baghi Shirkat, is about 30km west of Kunduz city.
Afghan officials said a Taliban commander who helped smuggle weapons was among the dead, NATO said.
Eight militants were killed in all, said Abdul Rahman Aqtash, the deputy provincial police chief. No civilians were injured, NATO said.
Meanwhile, another eight militants were killed in a NATO-Afghan military operation in eastern Ghazni Province, according to General Khail Buz Sherzai, the provincial police chief.
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