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30 Taliban Fighters, 100 Government Police, Officials, Amid Incomplete Power Handover

September 27, 2014

 

Afghan clashes kill 30 militants, official warns of IS emergence

KABUL, Sept. 27, 2014 (Xinhua) --

Amid reports of the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) in southern Afghanistan's Ghazni province, clash with Taliban fighters have left 30 of them dead since Friday, deputy to provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi said Saturday.

He said four of the fleeing Taliban fighters had been killed by locals when they were retreating to their hideouts.

The operation took place in the wake of Taliban advance to capture Ajristan district.

Ahmadi said the operations will continue till the eviction of Taliban fighters from Ajristan and adjoining areas.

The counter-offensive in Ajristan was launched in the wake of massive Taliban attack to the mountainous district a week ago, during which several people including women and children had been killed.

The advancing Taliban fighters, said Ahmadi, only in Akhundkhil village had killed 15 members of police personnel after capturing the village besides beheading several government employees there.

The Taliban fighters had killed and injured more than 100 people during clash over the past one week, Ahmadi said.

Meanwhile, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit, in a statement posted on the outfit's website, confirmed the clash in Ajristan but rejected killing innocent people and burning the houses, insisted the Taliban fighters just had killed security personnel.

Clash in the mountainous Ajiristan district of Ghazni province is escalating amid reports of emergence of the (IS) in the southern Ghazni province.

The Taliban fighters "claimed having affiliation with the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, have hoisted the black flags of IS in some districts, and written slogans on the walls in IS support," a local newspaper the Daily Wahdat writes in its Saturday edition.

The Taliban fighters "who are supporting IS have blocked the communication roads in some districts, obviously are busy in organizing their fighters," the paper quoted Mohammad Ali Ahmadi as saying.

The newly formed Afghan outfit began its activities from Shinkai area in Muqar district recently and so far have killed at least three persons.

Taliban Storms Afghan Region, Kills 100 in Days, Amid Incomplete Power Handover 

Russia TV, September 26, 2014 13:11

In the midst of an ongoing power handover in Afghanistan, hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed a strategic district close to the capital, killing more than 100 people. The fighting is ongoing, and if the army doesn’t arrive soon, the area could fall.

Contact with police in certain districts of the Ghazni province has already been lost after 700 fighters about five days ago made early reports of attacks, which resulted in the immense death toll. Fifteen of the dead were beheaded, according to provincial deputy governor Ahmadullah Ahmadi, speaking to Reuters.

On Friday, heavy fighting in districts of the Ghazni province was ongoing. In Ajrestan district a suicide car bomber rammed a police checkpoint earlier in the day. Contact was subsequently lost with the district.

The capital is just about 200km (125 miles) north-east of the district, and the newly-conquered territory would provide a bridge with the south and southeast, where insurgents have made large gains in recent months.

It would also give them a base for attacking the adjacent provinces of Uruzgan and Daikundi.

"If there is no urgent help from the central government, the district will collapse," deputy police chief for the area Asadullah Safi said.

"We have asked repeatedly for helicopters to evacuate the wounded, but so far nothing has been done," Ahmadi told reporters.

This is contrary to what the regional spokesman for the army says however. He claims reinforcements were sent from Kabul on Thursday, although no information as to their whereabouts exists at this time.

Meanwhile, as local authorities appeal for help from Kabul, it is in the middle of an unconcluded power handover from Hamid Karzai to President-elect Ashraf Ghani, 13 tumultuous years after the failure of the US-led foreign invasion to restore the rule of law in the mountainous country.

Karzai underlined during his departure speech on Tuesday that America invaded Afghanistan in 2001 for “its own interests,” and never really wanted peace in the region.

"War in Afghanistan is based on the aims of foreigners. The war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners. But Afghans on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims of this war," he told the AP.

Karzai is the only president to hold the post since the invasion.  

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