At least 30 civilians killed in ANDSF, foreign forces operation

At least 30 civilians including children and women have been killed in airstrikes and operations of Afghan and foreign forces in Jaghato district of Wardak and Tagab district of Kapisa province, local residents claimed on Monday.
An inhabitant of the Kalandi village of Wardak’s Jaghato district, who did not want to be named, told Pajhwok Afghan News the Afghan and international forces raided a Taliban jail in Mullah Hafiz area.
He said the security forces were attacked from civilian homes. In the ensuing airstrike, the security forces bombed the residence of Maseeh Rahman.
At least 12 people, including a woman and 11 children of the family, were killed in the airstrike. “Maseeh, currently working in Iran, lost his wife, three sons and four daughters. Four other girls killed in the raid were his cousins.”
Hikmatullah Zaland, a native of the area, wrote on his Facebook account, several women and children were killed. He said 11 of them were his relatives.
But Abdul Rahman Mangal, the governor’s spokesman, denied the killing of civilians during the overnight raid. He said security forces launched operation against a Taliban jail.
As the troops freed 20 people, including ANA soldiers, 42 militants were killed and more than 30 others were wounded.
Taliban’s shadow district governors for Jaghato and Nirkh — Qari Syed Rahim and Mullah Muslim — and notorious commander Mullah Abdul Rahman were among the dead.
Javed Ghafoor, spokesman for Ministry of Defense (MoD), said commandos conducted the air-and-ground operation in Mullah Hafiz and Mizaibak areas of Jaghato district late on Sunday night.
He said six soldiers, who had been in rebel custody for the past four months, were released from the Taliban jail. Eleven insurgents were killed and several others wounded, he said.
A number of weapons and ammunition belonging to the militants were also seized during the overnight raid, the MoD spokesman added.
Separately, residents of Kapisa’s Tagab district say 18 members of one family killed in Badrab village of the district.
Citing inhabitants of the area, Afghan Islamic Press reported on Monday a house was hit by an airstrike on Sunday night. Mulawi Muhammad Qabil, a resident of the area, told the news agency that the perished, including women and children, were all members of one family, stressing they had no links with any militant group. However, provincial officials in Kapisa denied civilian casualty, saying only Taliban were killed in the joint Afghan and foreign forces operation.
A spokesman for the provincial governor Qais Qadiri said eight Taliban fighters were killed and as many others were wounded in the operation. He reiterated that the operation will continue as long as the area is cleared of militants.