Afghan fighting claims over 50 lives in 24 hours

KABUL, Nov. 14 — Fighting between government forces and the anti-government militants have left more than 50 people dead in the insurgency-battered Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Wednesday.

In the latest hostility, Taliban insurgents stormed security checkpoints in Ashkamish district of the northern Takhar province early Wednesday, triggering gun battle which lasted for hours, leaving seven insurgents and three security personnel dead, provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jawad Hajari has confirmed.

Five militants and four security personnel sustained injuries in the fighting, the official said.
Similarly, one Afghan police and two national army soldiers lost their lives outside Ghazni city, the capital of eastern Ghazni province Wednesday morning and the Taliban attacks on security checkpoints have been repulsed, police said.

A total of 24 insurgents have been confirmed dead and 19 others injured as fighting aircrafts pounded Taliban hideouts in Arkalik area of Qaisar district in the northern Faryab province over the past 24 hours, an army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said Wednesday.

Identical fighting in Mizan district of the southern Zabul province has left two police and eight insurgents dead and nearly a dozen more from both sides injured since Tuesday, provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar reported Wednesday.

Eight more militants affiliated with the Taliban outfit have been killed in Mohammad Agha district of the eastern Logar province since Tuesday morning, security sources said.

Both the Taliban and government forces have stepped up operations to gain more ground and consolidate positions ahead of snowfall in the mountainous Afghanistan, observers said. – XINHUA