Gun battles, air strike kill 21 militants in Afghanistan

FAIZABAD/KANDAHAR/JALALABAD: At least 21 militants killed and several injured in gun battles and airstrikes in three cities of Afghanistan on Thursday.

Eight militants have been killed and the Taliban attempt to overrun Nasai district in northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province was foiled, provincial police spokesman Sanaullah Rohani said Thursday.

The government, according to the official, has sent reinforcement to Nasai district and the Taliban militants, after leaving eight bodies behind, fled the area. Four militants and three police personnel were injured in the fighting, the official said, adding that the situation is under control in Nasai district.

Taliban militants who are in control of parts of Badakhshan province are yet to make comments. Meanwhile, at least seven militants were killed and five others sustained injuries as a clash erupted between security forces and Taliban group in Maiwand district of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province on Wednesday night, deputy to provincial police chief Abdul Bashir Khaksar said Thursday.

The clash, according to the official, flared up after the militants stormed some security checkpoints and the government forces, in counter-offensive began targeting the militants from ground and air, leaving seven insurgents dead and wounding five others. Khaksar also added that the government forces would continue to target the militants elsewhere in Kandahar.

Taliban militants are yet to make comment on the report. In the meanwhile, a senior commander of the hardliner Islamic State (IS) group named Yaser Khurasani along with five others has been killed in the eastern Nangarhar province, said a statement of Afghan national army Corps 201 Selab stationed in the eastern region on Thursday.

"Acting upon intelligence report the fighting aircrafts targeted the hideout of the IS group in Khogiani district killing the group's senior commander Yaser Khurasani and five others on the spot," the statement said, without providing more details.

This is the second IS commander that has been killed in Afghanistan's eastern region over the past week. In the previous attack, Abu Saad Erhabi, top leader of IS outfit in Afghanistan, was killed in the same district Khogiani of Nangarhar province over weekend.