More than 50 senior Taliban commanders were killed in an artillery strike on a meeting in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, US forces in Afghanistan announced on Wednesday.
Details of last week’s operation emerged as fighting continued in other parts of Afghanistan, where the Taliban, aiming to restore their version of hardline Islamic law, launched their annual spring offensive in April.
In the northern province of Takhar, Taliban militants in the Dasht-e Qala district center captured the governor’s compound and police headquarters on Wednesday but heavy fighting was continuing.
These attacks coincided with an attack by gunmen in Kabul against the heavily fortified interior ministry and security forces there for more than two hours before the assault was suppressed.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq propaganda service.
There were also serious incidents in Takhar province in the north, in Loghar, east of the capital, and Kandahar in the south, keeping up a pattern of attacks across the country.
Last week the Taliban called on Kabul residents to stay away from military and intelligence centers in the capital, saying they planned more assaults as part of their annual spring offensive, AFP reported.
In this context, the US military said the May 24 meeting in Helmand’s district of Musa Qala involved commanders from a number of Afghan provinces, including neighboring Farah, where Taliban fighters this month briefly threatened to overrun the provincial capital, Reuters said.
“We think the meeting was to plan next steps,” said Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.
While the strike by an artillery rocket system would disrupt Taliban operations, it would not necessarily mean any interruption to the fighting, he said.
However, the attack in one of the heartlands of the Taliban insurgency was a significant blow to the insurgents, he added.
“It’s certainly a notable strike,” O’Donnell noted, adding that several other senior and lower level commanders had been killed during operations over a 10-day period this month.
The Taliban dismissed the report as “propaganda” and said the attack had hit two civilian houses in Musa Qala, killing five civilians and wounding three, Reuters reported.
“This was a civilian residential area, which had no connection with the Taliban,” spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said in a statement.
