26 rebels eliminated, 37 injured in Helmand clashes

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok):  Twenty-six Taliban militants were killed and 37 others wounded after they attacked security posts near the capital of southern Helmand province, officials said on Monday.

Police chief Nabi Jan Mullakhel told Pajhwok Afghan News dozens of rebels stormed security posts late on Sunday in Godar and Panjaw Qala areas and suffered heavy causalities after the security personnel returned fire.

He said security forces also captured six insurgents alive during the clash that lasted one hour and seized eight weapons, two bomb-rigged cars and as many motorcycles. Three policemen were slightly injured during the clash, he said.

Speaking to reporters in Trikh Nawar area, the police chief said the area had been cleared of militants. The area previously served as a Taliban’s stronghold, he said.

A search operation was underway in the area and security forces were searching for landmines, Mullakhel said.

He claimed security forces seized huge amount of ammunitions and explosives in the area last night, when two women were killed in a landmine blast, accusing the Taliban of planting the improvised explosive device.

Col. Ghulam Nabi Qati, the 215th Thunder Military Corps first battalion commander, told Pajhwok in the Trikh Nawar area that security posts would be established in the area once fully demined.

Trikh Nawar is 10 kilometres west of Lashkargah. It borders Nad Ali, Nawa and Marja districts.

Brig. Gen. Sultan Mahmood, the 406 border zone police commander, said though their job was securing borders, their clashes with insurgents in the Trikh Nawar area as part of the ongoing Operation Zulfikar had resulted in killing of Taliban or forcing them to flee.

He said reconstruction work on the main road to the area had been launched and it would help security forces maintain security there.

Security officials have been reluctant to provide information about casualties among security forces during the ongoing operation codenamed Zulfikar, but they insist the casualties are far less.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed a dozen security personnel were killed in an overnight roadside bomb attack in the Sarwan Qala area of Sangin district.

nh/ma

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