Monitoring Desk
LASHKARGAH: Five persons were killed in a drone strike of the foreign forces in Sangin district in Helmand province on Friday (February 01).
An unmanned aircraft of the foreign forces fired missile on a vehicle in Deobandi area in Sangin district, leaving five persons dead, reliable sources told AIP.
The dead included three Taliban gunmen and two civilians, the sources said.
Some sources said that the fallen three Taliban gunmen were the fighters of a commander identified as Motasim Agha Jan.
An official at Helmand media center Zahid Atal told AIP that five Taliban gunmen including a commander identified as Sher Agha were killed in an airstrike in Sangin district. According to Atal, Sher Agha was the brother of the wife of Taliban’s deceased governor Mullah Manan Baja.
However, local Taliban in the area said all the five persons killed in the blitz belonged to the same family.
The deceased belonged to the family of a spiritual figure Muhammad Wali Agha in Zardagai area, a local Taliban official said. The dead included his three sons and two nephews.
Other sources said seven Taliban fighters including a commander identified as Motasim Agha Jan were killed and few more wounded in separate airstrikes in Karez Koka area in Toghi, Charkhano Manda and Deobandi areas of Sangin and Karez Koka area between Musa Kala and Nawzad districts today.
Taliban spokesman Qari Muhammad Yousaf Ahmadi said five civilians were killed in the drone strike in Deobandi area. They belonged to the same family, he added. Officials in Helmand and foreign forces have not said anything in this regard so far.
Meanwhile, Acting Defense Minister Assadullah Khalid and the US and NATO Forces Commander in Afghanistan Gen. Scott Miller on Friday visited Kandahar to assess security situation and the ongoing military operations in the province.
Miller visited Kandahar following his previous visit in October, 2018, when former Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq was assassinated in an attack by an armed man. Khalid and Miller met Afghan National Army and Police force members as well as the provincial Police Chief Gen. Tadeen Khan, Kandahar tribalelders and commanders leading the military operations against militants and discussed issues around security and the operations. (AIP)
