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Roundup: Afghan forces recapture northern Dand-e-Ghori district, troops chasing militants

Xinhua, March 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Afghan security forces after weeks of fierce fighting with Taliban fighters recaptured Dand-e-Ghori district in northern Baghlan province 160 km north of Kabul, forcing militants to flee, an army commander in the embattled district, General Amanudin Mubin said Thursday.

"Finally the Taliban fled the area after suffering huge casualties and losing hundreds of fighters on the ground over the past more than a month military operations there," General Mubin told reporters here.

Mubin who took a group of journalists in Dand-e-Ghori district on Thursday morning hours after evicting militants from the troubled area asserted, "Some 280 Taliban insurgents have been killed and around 200 others injured" during the operation, which is continuing.

Nevertheless, the official avoided commenting on casualties of government forces by saying, "our casualties are few."

Earlier in the day, Baghlan's provincial governor Abdul Sattar Bariz informed reporters about recapturing Dand-e-Ghori district.

However, the governor didn't provide details, saying security officials would brief the media on the situation in Dand-e-Ghori later in the day.

Dand-e-Ghori has served as bastion of Taliban in the northern Baghlan province from where the militants organized their activities in Baghlan and its neighboring Kunduz and Takhar provinces.

To evict Taliban from the area, the government forces launched major offensive, five weeks ago which have claimed hundreds of lives and scores other homeless.

Taliban militants who have claimed killing some 100 security forces over the past five weeks of fighting in the restive Dand-e-Ghori, are yet to make comment on the situation there.

Meantime, local military analysts believe that cleansing Dand-e-Ghori from Taliban by government forces would demoralize militants in the neighboring Dand-e-Shabudin and Baghlan-e-Markazi districts to escape the ongoing military onslaughts. Enditem