Tajik warplanes hit cross-border targets in Afghanistan

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

At least four Tajik warplanes have hit targets inside a Taliban-controlled area in Afghanistan's Takhar province, officials and local media confirmed Monday.

Khalil Aseer, a spokesman for the police headquarters in Takhar, told Anadolu Agency that six Taliban fighters were killed and nine others wounded.

He said the air strike followed a deadly clash between drug smugglers and Tajik border guards a day earlier in which two guards were killed.

According to Jawed Hijri, the spokesman for the provincial governor, the warplanes hit the Taliban-controlled Acha Guzar and Kohna Khana in a forested area close to the Tajik border.

Zabihullah Mujahed, the Taliban spokesman, has also confirmed clashes between the drug smugglers and the Tajik border guards.

"We are looking into the incident, as Taliban fighters have no permission to clash with neighboring countries," he was quoted by the local Azadi Radio.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense has rejected a media reported over the involvement of their military planes in the incident.

"The information from the British news agency Reuters about the alleged air strikes by Russian planes on Taliban militants in the northeast border area of Afghanistan does not correspond to reality", a Russian Defense Ministry statement published by the state-owned Sputnik news agency read.