8 rebels dead in Faryab clashes

MAIMANA (PAN): Eight militants were killed during clashes with Afghan security personnel in the northern province of Faryab, officials said on Tuesday.

Five of the insurgents were killed in Konjak area of Qaisar district and three others during a clash in the Dowabi locality of Ghormach district, said Gen. Noor Mohammad Hamid, a 209th military corps official.

Three of the dead — Mullah Jamal, Mullah Ziauddin and Mullah Amir — were local rebel commanders, said the district’s acting administrative head, Asal Khan.

But a Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed the fighters had inflicted heavy casualties on Afghan forces in Ghormach district.

An Afghan National Army (ANA) officer was killed in Qaisar district, he said, adding a civilian was also killed and one fighter wounded.

Separately, three Taliban fighters and two policemen were wounded in a fire exchange in the Timuryan area of Maqur district of neighboring Badghis province, said the governor’s spokesman, Sharafuddin Majidi.

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