Taliban militants overrun district in northeastern Afghanistan
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:15AM
The Taliban militant group has taken control of a district in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Badghis, as Afghan government forces are battling the militants at other fronts elsewhere in the war-battered country.
Major Reza Rezaee, the spokesman for Afghanistan's 209th Shaheen Military Corps, said Taliban militants overran Ghormach district, situated about 500 kilometers (310 miles) northwest of the capital, Kabul, early Sunday, following heavy clashes with Afghan security forces.
He added that security forces alongside government officials have holed up inside a military base in the district, and the Taliban terrorists are tightening the noose around them.
A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Taliban terrorists have seized the district governor's compound as well as police headquarters.
He added the Taliban have set the police headquarters on fire.
Afghan forces kill 42 Taliban militants
Meanwhile, Afghan army troops backed by security forces have killed more than 40 Taliban militants and wounded nearly three dozen others in a series of clean-up operations across the strife-torn country over the past 24 hours.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that 42 militants were killed and 31 others injured in a series of operations carried out in the provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, Kapisa, Maidan Wardak and Nangarhar.
The statement added that two Taliban members were also arrested during the offensives, while five Afghan soldiers lost their lives.
Afghan soldiers also confiscated light and heavy weaponry and defused several rounds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity nearly 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country in 2001 as part of Washington's so-called war on terror.
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