Afghan security operatives
Afghan forces say they have killed a key commander of the Taliban radical movement in the country’s southern Kandahar province.
The country’s head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Ahmad Zia Saraj, said this on Tuesday.
On Monday, a source told Sputnik that two high-ranking Taliban commanders had been killed in a drone strike by government forces in Kandahar.
The government forces conducted a drone strike between the Maiwand and Zhari districts, killing Taliban commander Muhammad Rahim and the leader of suicide attackers in the southern zone, Ahmad Sahib.
According to Saraj, the killed Taliban commander has been identified as Maulvi Ahmad Kandahari, who was the second most important leader of the movement in the province.
The official added that over the past several years, Afghan forces arrested 408 terrorists of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), 60 per cent of whom were Pakistani nationals.
Terrorists infiltrate Afghanistan through Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.
The intelligence chief also said that the international community should not leave Afghanistan, where the fight against terror is underway.
He added that following the announcement of the withdrawal of foreign troops, the Taliban escalated violence in the country.
Bomb attacks and clashes continue to ravage Afghanistan even after the launch of the Kabul-Taliban peace talks in Qatar’s Doha last September.
The Afghan military continues to regularly report on its special operations against Taliban operatives, who are now said to control about three-fourths of the Afghan land.
The United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will withdraw ground forces from Afghanistan starting on May 1 with a deadline to be completely out of the country by Sept. 11. (Sputnik/NAN)