KABUL (Dispatches) – At least six Taliban militants were killed and four others wounded after the Afghan Air Force (AAF) launched airstrikes in the eastern Logar province, the military confirmed on Sunday.
“The AAF strikes were conducted in Mohammad Agha and Baraki Barak districts of Logar province, about 60 km south of Kabul on Saturday. Among the killed was a local Taliban leader,” the army’s 203 Thunder Military Corps said in a statement.
The precise strikes were launched based on confirmed intelligence tips, the statement said, adding that no civilian was affected during the raids.
Violence lingers in the country as the Taliban militants have been attempting to seize small towns or districts by launching hit-and-run ambushes against Afghan national security forces.
About 15 out of 407 Afghan districts remain under Taliban’s control while 40 districts have been facing high threats from militants and 30 percent of the districts were contested, according to official figures.
In another development, a prominent pro-government religious leader was assassinated in Afghanistan amid the ongoing targeted killing spree in the war-ravaged country, officials confirmed on Sunday.
The latest victim of the unclaimed slayings was identified as Mawlawi Sayed Saifullah Safi, head of the Syed Khail District Religious Council in the central Parwan province north of the capital Kabul.
District Governor Ahmad Umer told Anadolu Agency that Mawlawi Safi was shot dead by unknown assassins in front of a public school in the morning.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing.
A number of prominent figures lost their lives this year to the ongoing spate of violence, including Mawlawi Ayaz Niazi, the widely respected prayer leader of the Wazir Mohammed Akbar Khan Mosque in Kabul’s highly guarded diplomatic zone.
This comes as deadly violence returned to Afghanistan after a three-day truce for the Muslim holy festival of Eid last week.