Air raid kills 30 Taliban in Afghanistan

PUL-E-KHUMRI: Up to 30 militants were killed as fighting aircraft targeted a Taliban gathering in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of the northern Baghlan province on Sunday, an army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.

"Acting upon intelligence report, the fighting aircraft conducted a series of sorties against a gathering of Taliban rebels in Baghlan-e-Markazi district at around noon, killing 30rebels on the spot," Rezai told Xinhua. The official didn't provide more details. Taliban militants launched a series of attacks in parts of Baghlan province including capital Pul-e-Khumri on Saturday to disrupt the voting process of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections. The attacks have claimed 13 lives and injured scores of others.

In Jalalabad, a total of 11 civilians were killed in a roadside bomb in the eastern Nangarhar province as voting for parliamentary elections continued for 2nd day in Afghanistan's 14 out of 34 provinces on Sunday, a provincial official Attaullah Khogiani said.

Voting in Kandahar and Ghazni provinces has been postponed for security reasons. "A mine planted by militants struck a civilian car in Achin district at 11:00 a.m. local time today killing 11 civilians including a woman and six children," Khogiani told Xinhua.

Taliban militants who have vowed to disrupt the voting process and conducted 168 attacks on the first day of elections on Saturday which claimed scores of lives, are yet to make comment about organising roadside bombing in Nangarhar.