13 dead, several injured in fresh violence

KABUL (Pajhwok): At least 13 militants and a civilian have been killed and 10 others wounded in separate security incidents in different parts of the country, officials said on Saturday.

An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) oil tanker was torched and a pick-up destroyed in a rebel assault in the Spin Ghbargai area of Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province.

Brig Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewanai, the provincial police chief, said that three policemen were wounded when the pick-up they were travelling in struck a roadside bomb in Nawbahar district.

He said six militants were also killed during a clash with security forces in the area. But Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed more than 20 security personnel were killed during clashes in Qalat, Mizani, Shinkai, Nawbahar and Shahr-i-Safa districts.

Elsewhere, five militants, including a commander, were killed in northwestern Faryab province. Maulvi Habibullah was killed along with his four accomplices by Afghan forces in Pashtoon Kot district, police chief, Col. Mohammad Naeem Andarabi said.

Also in Faryab, a police officer was abducted along with his driver by unidentified gunmen in Almar district. District chief, Mohammad Saleh, said the police officer and his driver had been kidnapped by militant commander Maulvi Habibullah.

According to another report, seven people including a Pakistani national suffered casualties during clashes in central Maidan Wardak province.

Attaullah Khogyani, the governor’s spokesman, said one rebel was killed and three others injured during separate clashes in Chak, Syedabad and Jaghatu districts last night.

He added two girls were wounded when a mortar shell fired by militants hit a residential building in the Chahar Dehi area of Syedabad district. A policeman was also injured in a security incident in Chak.

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