Afghan militancy, conflicts claim over 170 lives over past week: Official

Continued Taliban-led militancy and conflicts in the war-battered Afghanistan have claimed the lives of 171 people including 106 Taliban insurgents, 42 civilians and 23 personnel of Afghan National Police (ANP) over the past one week, spokesman of Interior Ministry Zamarai Bashari said Sunday.

"Some 121 terrorists attacks including mine blasts and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosions have been registered throughout the country over the past one week which indicates six percent decrease than the previous week," Bashari told a weekly press conference here in Interior Ministry compound.

Mentioning the casualties on civilians and police, he said that 57 Afghan civilians, 28 ANP personnel as well as four militants were also wounded over the period.

Majority of the incidents had occurred in southern Helmand, Ghazni, Wardak and eastern Paktika provinces where Taliban militants are active, he stated.

According to Bashari, 179 more Taliban insurgents and other anti-government militants had been arrested by police over the above period.

"One hundred nineteen roadside bomb and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) had been found and defused by police in the past one week," Bashari further said.

Regarding the war against narcotics in the major poppy producing country, he said, dozens of search operations had been launched by police and special counter-narcotics police force which had resulted in arresting 68 drug smugglers and the seizure of over 2,450 kg of narcotics.

He also confirmed that 127 criminal incident had been registered by police across the country over the past one week, adding the number shows eight percent decrease in compare with the previous week.

Meanwhile, he said based on presidential decree on banning of foreign and local private security companies the dissolving process of the firms has been going on as per scheduled, saying 14 local and international private security firms had been dissolved since the process begun couple of weeks ago.

"It is a serious program and government will execute it but it is a gradual process," Bashari emphasized.

More than 1,730 various kind of rifles including heavy and light weapons had been sized from the private security firms so far, he further said.

Source: Xinhua