Afghanistan: 102 militants killed after TV station raid

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

One day after a deadly attack on state-run TV by Daesh militants, Afghan security forces claim to have killed 102 militants, including 15 pro-Daesh militants, across the country in the past 24 hours.

Brig. Sher Agha, spokesman for the Afghan National Army’s (ANA) 201-Sailab Corps, told Anadolu Agency that 15 pro-Daesh militants were killed in cleansing operations in the Nangarhar province’s Chaparhar district.

Separately, the Defense Ministry said Thursday that 87 armed rebels have been killed and 27 wounded in ongoing counter-terrorism operations in 18 out of the country’s 34 provinces.

Ten people, including four assailants, were killed Wednesday in a gun-and-bomb attack on the regional headquarters of state-run Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) in the eastern city of Jalalabad, Nangarhar’s capital. The RTA offices are located in the heart of the city, close to the headquarters of the provincial government and the main market.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. Nangarhar has been marred by a pro-Daesh insurgency, with strongholds of the terror group's militants said to be in the southern Achin, Kot, and Bati Kot districts near the border with Pakistan.

Wednesday’s attack is the fifth major attack claimed by Daesh in the last seven months in Afghanistan. On May 3, Daesh said it carried out a suicide attack in the capital Kabul that killed eight civilians. Other attacks include the Sardar Mohammad Dawood Khan Hospital incident in March that left up to 50 people dead, a suicide attack on the Supreme Court in February that claimed 22 lives, and twin-suicide attacks on Shia protesters last year that killed 80 people.