KABUL: A military operation by Afghan commando units in northeastern Kapisa province left at least 12 insurgents dead, including a Taliban shadow governor and district chief, a security official said Tuesday.
Sharin Aqa Faqiri, army spokesman for northeast Afghanistan, said Mullah Nasim Mushfaq, the Taliban shadow governor for Kapisa, and Qari Esanullah, shadow district chief for Tagab, were among those killed late Sunday night.
Faqiri said the senior Taliban leaders were in a meeting when they came under attack by ground forces supported by aircraft in Tagab district.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, confirmed the attack in a statement, saying a number of Taliban, including the shadow governor and shadow district chief, were killed in the attack.
In the capital Kabul, three people including a man and two children were wounded by a rocket that hit a home in the western part of the city, said Ghafor Azizi, 5th district city police chief.
Azizi said at least three rockets were fired form an unknown location toward the city, with two of them striking a nearby mountain. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
In eastern Nangarhar province, four local security forces were shot and killed by Taliban insurgents, said Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Khogyani said Taliban fighters wearing border police uniforms stopped the security forces’ vehicle and then opened fire on them, killing them inside their vehicle in Nazyan district late Monday.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban insurgents and Islamic State group affiliates are active in the province.
Meanwhile, in western Ghor province, gunmen kidnapped six people — a doctor, his driver and four university students, said Abdul Hai Khateby, spokesman for the governor. He said three of the abducted are women.
Khateby said the district doctor was on his way to the provincial capital of Feroz Koh in an ambulance and picked up the university students who also wanted to go to Dawlat Yar district.
Local government officials and tribal elders are in negotiations to free the hostages, who are believed to be Taliban.