LASHKARGAH (SW): As many as 71 insurgents have been reported dead in southern Helmand province following joint operations by the Afghan and NATO forces.
Aqa Noor Kentoz, police chief for the province said on Tuesday that the militants have been killed in Sangin, Nahr-e-Saraj, Khanshin and Marja districts. He said among the dead included nine would-be suicide bombers that were planning to attack the district headquarters in Sangin.
The police chief added that the Taliban’s shadow district chief for Sangin has also been eliminated, and his dead body has been moved by the rebels back to Pakistan.
The NATO forces have resumed air strikes following the US President Barack Obama’s approval for actions against the rebels in Afghanistan. Earlier, the NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan ended in 2014 leaving the allied forces to train and assist the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Since then, it was the first time that the NATO forces conducted seven air strikes against the rebels in Helmand.
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