Planner of Ghazni attack killed in airstrike: Afghan MoD

KABUL: At least seven militants, including Hamza Waziristani — accused of plotting Sunday’s deadly attack in Ghazni that left 31 dead — were killed in an airstrike in Gero district, Ghazni province, on Sunday night, the Afghan Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement. “A large number of their weapons and ammunition were also destroyed,” the statement said.

On Sunday, at least 31 people, mostly security forces, were killed in a suicide attack in Ghazni, local health officials stated.

A public protection unit in PD3 of Ghazni was targeted, said the spokesman for provincial governor Wahidullah Jumazada.

A security source said the bomber detonated “a Humvee vehicle which was full of explosives.”

Army commandos were also based at the compound, according to security sources. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Taliban rejected the statement by releasing a video on social media in which the person who the Defense Ministry says has been killed says that he is alive and that he has not been attacked.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Rafiq Alokozai, police chief of Obe district in Herat, was killed in a Taliban ambush in the district on Monday morning, said the spokesman for the provincial police chief, Abdul Ahad Walizada.

The incident happened in Obe, about 15 kms from the center of the district.

Taliban attacked Alokozai’s car, Walizada said, adding that were “no other security forces casualties in the attack.”

The local officials did not provide further details. However, the Taliban has not yet claimed the attack.

Meanwhile, Abdul Basir Nuristani, head of the ANA’s 3rd infantry brigade in Badghis, was killed in Bala Murgha district of the province on Sunday night in a “Taliban mortar attack,” local officials said.

The officials said a mortar landed in the army compound and that 11 other soldiers were also wounded, according to officials.

“Some of the wounded soldiers are in critical condition,” he said. The officials did not provide further details about the attack. The Taliban has not yet commented on the attack.