26 June 2016•Update: 29 June 2016
By Shadi Khan Saif
KABUL, Afghanistan
The Afghan army launched a US-supported operation overnight Sunday to counter a heavy offensive in eastern Afghanistan by pro-Daesh militants.
Local officials in the eastern Nangarhar province said the militants had killed at least 12 civilians, including women and children, in Kot district.
Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the militants had also taken as many as 30 civilians with them.
Fighters claiming loyalty to Syria-based Daesh had long been concentrated in Nangarhar’s Achin district, before the current advance along the Nangarhar-Kabul highway in recent days.
Afghan army statements said up to 48 militants had been killed in the operation, with US air support, another 10 were killed in the group's Achin stronghold. The provincial governor
Saleem Kunduzi claimed Sunday that actually more than 130 militants had been killed over several days of fighting.
The air strikes were the first since the US decided to adopt a broader role in Afghanistan, especially for counter-terrorism operations, after having ended their more than decade-long combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2015.
The Afghan Shamshad TV quoted Siddique Mansour, head of the Afghanistan Civil Society Federation, saying that the fighters had crossed the border from Pakistan.
