• Home
• /
• World
• /
• Rest of Asia

US air strikes target militants near border in east Afghanistan

The first air strike took place on Friday in Nuristan, an eastern province next to Pakistan that is partially controlled by the Taleban.

Kabul - US military air strikes have targeted militants who were threatening international coalition forces near the border in eastern Afghanistan, a US forces spokesman said on Sunday.
Most foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan when Nato combat operations ended last year. Around 13,200 international troops are part of a new training mission, while a small contingent of US troops is separately fighting the Taleban and other militants.
The first air strike took place on Friday in Nuristan, an eastern province next to Pakistan that is partially controlled by the Taleban.
Another strike followed in Paktika on Saturday, a stronghold of the Haqqani network and other groups allied with the Taleban.
A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan declined to say which troops were involved and the nature of the threat.
“I’ll generally say coalition forces for both,” Colonel Brian Tribus said.
Six militants were killed in the first air strike, according to an interior ministry report, which also indicated an Al Qaeda operative had been killed in the second.
In the first fighting season since the official end of the Nato combat mission last year, the Taleban have made gains across the country and succeeded in overrunning 15 district headquarters, according to a senior Afghan security official.
Additionally, support for Daesh has spread and the group is exapnding its contingent of foreign fighters and disenchanted Taleban militants.