KABUL - Airstrikes and ground operations by NATO and Afghan troops killed dozens of insurgents, including a senior Taliban leader who spearheaded attacks against security forces, the alliance said Thursday as the war in Afghanistan entered its 10th year.
Sixteen militants were killed in air raids and ground fighting overnight in the Darqad, Yangi Qala and Khwaja Bahawuddin districts of Takhar province. More than a dozen insurgents were wounded.
Northern Takhar has been the scene of escalating military operations in recent days, as NATO and Afghan forces step up the battle for control of the Taliban-dominated south.
Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, Takhar provincial police chief, said his convoy was ambushed early Thursday and four attackers were killed in a gunbattle that lasted several hours. No joint-force casualties occurred, he said.
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Taliban commander Maulawi Jawadullah - accused of organizing deadly ambushes, roadside bombings and abductions of Afghan police and soldiers in northern Afghanistan - was killed in an airstrike Wednesday, NATO said. Seven other Taliban also died in the assault.
Jawadullah was linked to the recent deaths of 10 Afghan National Police officers during an attack on a police station in neighboring Kunduz province.
A NATO service member was killed Thursday in an insurgent attack in the country's north, and another died in a roadside bombing a day earlier in the south, the alliance announced. The attacks brought to at least 15 the number of NATO deaths so far in October.
US Toll in Afghanistan
1,215
Deaths
8,529
Wounded
Latest identifications
• Pfc. Ryane G. Clark, 22, of New London, Minn.; assigned to the 27th Combat Engineer Battalion (Airborne), 20th Combat Engineer Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C.
• Lance Cpl. Scott A. Lynch, 22, of Greenwood Lake, N.Y.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Source: Department of Defense
