Eight militants, including key Taliban leader, die in Baghlan drone attack

PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan: Eight militants including a key Taliban commander, Qari Assadullah, were confirmed dead as an unmanned plane struck a Taliban hideout in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of northern Afghan Baghlan province on Monday, said Abdul Hadi Jamal, an army spokesman in the northern region.

"Acting upon intelligence report, the unmanned plane targeted the Taliban hideout in Kokchinar area of Baghlan-e-Markazi district today morning, killing eight rebels including notorious commander Qari Assadullah on the spot," Jamal told Xinhua.

Terming Assadullah as an infamous and merciless Taliban commander who had organised subversive activities to kill people, the official said that Assadullah's physical elimination could prove to be a major setback to the Taliban fighters in Baghlan province.

Taliban militants who have shelters just a few kilometers from Baghlan provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri have yet to make comment. According to another report at least four personnel of Border Police Force and five militants were killed as clash erupted between security forces and the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's western Badghis province on Sunday, provincial governor spokesman Jamshid Shahabi said on Monday.

According to the official, the clash erupted after Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of border police in Laman township, near Qala-e-Naw, the Badghis provincial capital on Sunday afternoon, triggering a gun battle which lasted for a while and left four police personnel and five insurgents dead.

The official said that five more militants and two security personnel sustained injuries in the fighting. Laman, 35 km southwest of the provincial capital, has turned insecure, after militants affiliated with the Taliban outfit widened activities over the past couple of months. Taliban insurgents are yet to comment on the report.