Gov't troops launch operations in northern Afghanistan as 37 militants killed in 2 days

The Afghan forces have obviously adopted an aggressive stance against Taliban in the northern region as more than three dozen armed militants have been killed since Friday, officials said Saturday.

To eliminate militants, the government troops launched major operations against Taliban in Sarkh Kotal, Dand-e-Shahabudin and Dand-e-Ghori districts of the northern Baghlan province on Friday, army spokesman in the province Ahmad Jawed Salim said Saturday.

According to Salim, 15 militants have been killed and nearly a dozen others wounded since the crackdown was launched on Friday.

Aimed at taking back Sarkh Kotal area, the operations would continue until the law and order were restored there, the official said.

The strategically important Sarkh Kotal was captured by Taliban fighters weeks ago and since then the militants could threaten a major highway connecting the capital of Kabul to eight northern provinces. The Kabul-Mazar highway passes through Chashma-e-Shir outside the Baghlan provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri.

To demonstrate their control on the highway, Taliban militants ordered a passenger bus outside Chachma-e-Shir Friday night to stop for checking, but the driver defied the order and Taliban opened fire injuring four travelers, according to locals.

Local observers believed that controlling the Sarkh Kotal area would give Taliban an upper hand, who could disrupt the Kabul-Mazar highway at anytime.

Similar operations against Taliban which kicked off in Qaisar district of the northern Faryab province on Friday has left 22 Taliban fighters dead, Faryab's provincial governor Sayed Anwar Sadat told reporters on Saturday.

Meantime, eight Taliban militants have been injured as people in some villages of Yamgan district in the northern Badakhshan province made uprising against Taliban fighters on Friday, a senior police official Aziz Kamawal said Saturday.

Army spokesman in the northern region, Nasratullah Jamshidi, told Xinhua on Saturday that the security forces have been chasing the militants elsewhere and would spare no efforts to destroy their hideouts.

(APD)