Bombers among 30 militants killed

KABUL insurgents, including three suicide bombers, were killed in clashes with security forces in southeastern Paktika and southern Helmand provinces, officials said on Saturday.

In Paktika, 21 insurgents were killed during a gunbattle with police in the Zirok district on Friday night, the provincial police chief, Brig. Gen. Dawlat Khan Zadran, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Separately, two policemen were killed and a third wounded in a roadside bombing on the Sharan-Matakhan highway in the same province, he said, without elaborating.

In Helmand, two suicide bombers were shot dead by police and a third detonated his explosives-laden vehicle during a clash with police in the Jazi area of Nawzad district.

The governor’s spokesman, Omar Zwak, said police had prior information about the bombers. One of them detonated his explosives-laden car near a police checkpoint and the two others were killed during an hour-long fire exchange.

A rocket launcher and two Kalashnikovs were also recovered from the bombers, Zwak said.

Elsewhere in the province, six Taliban militants, including a commander named Mullah Nadir, were killed in an airstrike in the Shishangi area of Khanshin district.

The Taliban did not comment on the incidents, but their spokesman Qari Yousuf claimed heavy casualties had been inflicted on Afghan and foreign forces in Sangin and Greshk districts.

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