Airstrikes kill seven militants in Afghanistan

Seven militants, including two commanders, have been killed in airstrikes in Afghanistan’s central eastern Maidan Wardak Province, local media say.

Maidan Wardak’s media office issued a statement on Tuesday, saying the militants had been killed in two separate airstrikes carried out the night before, Afghanistan’s Khaama news agency reported.

According to the statement, militant commander Hamidullah Alias Shahid and four other militants were killed in an airstrike in the Alkah area of Dai Mirdad district.

A second militant commander and another militant were also killed in the Baik Siman area of Chak district.

The reports, however, did not specify what group the militants belonged to.

Afghanistan is gripped by violence years after soldiers from the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror, which removed the Taliban militant group from power.

Meanwhile, the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), released a statement on Monday, saying a commander of the Takfiri Daesh militant group, along with two Pakistani nationals, had been arrested in the country’s Nangarhar Province.

Daesh has recently emerged in Afghanistan, engaging in an apparent rivalry with the Taliban militant group.