KABUL: anti-Taliban raids by Afghan forces backed by US air strikes have killed at least 40 civilians attending a wedding party in Helmand province, officials said.The civilian deaths in Sunday night’s raids on Taliban hideouts further rattled Afghanistan amid an upsurge in violence following the collapse this month of US-Taliban peace talks to end America’s longest war.Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani, said: “We are saddened and divested to hear that civilians have lost their lives in an incident in Helmand despite President Ghani’s repeated call for extra cautions in conducting military operations.” He added that Helmand’s provincial governor has been instructed to send an investigation team to the area.Abdul Majed Akhund, deputy provincial councillor, said most of the dead were women and children who were at a wedding ceremony in Musa Qala district. Another 12 civilians were wounded and taken to hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, Akhund said.The civilian deaths occurred during the second of two raids in different areas of Musa Qala, said Attahullah Afghan, head of the provincial council. The operations killed 22 Taliban fighters, including foreigners, Afghanistan’s defence ministry said in a statement.The raids came after a drone attack last week in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province - blamed on US forces - killed at least 16 and wounded tens of others, most of them civilians. US forces said that attack was targeting Islamic State militants.Also, in an insider attack at Kandahar airport on Monday, a policeman turned his weapon on a Nato Resolute Support convoy, according to a statement tweeted by a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.Resolute Support forces returned fire, killing the attacker, the statement from Colonel Sonny Leggett said. Three Resolute Support service members suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the statement said.The violence comes as Afghanistan prepares for presidential elections on Saturday, a vote the Taliban vehemently oppose. The insurgent group has warned Afghans not to vote in the election and said their fighters would target election campaigns as well as polling stations.
09-24-2019, 07:01 PM
?40 killed at wedding? during anti-Taliban raid
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