Sunday, 13 December 2020_Scores of Taliban militants have been killed in clashes with Afghan government forces in the militants' southern stronghold of Kandahar.
The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said on Sunday that 63 Taliban militants had been killed and 29 others injured in the southern province over the past 72 hours.
Afghan forces countered Taliban attacks in five districts surrounding Kandahar with heavy air and ground assaults, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The escalation of violence comes as the US is withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan 19 years after invading the country in October 2001.
On Saturday, USFOR-A, the contingent of US forces in Afghanistan, confirmed having conducted an airstrike on Taliban positions after the militants attacked an Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) checkpoint in Kandahar's Zhari district.
Mohammad Naeem Wardak, a spokesman for the Taliban, said in a statement on his Twitter page that US airstrikes in Kandahar had killed 10 civilians and destroyed many residential homes.
US forces in Afghanistan dismissed the claims of civilian casualties, saying the airstrike was in accordance with a US-Taliban deal.
“This strike in defense of the ANDSF is IAW with the US-Taliban agreement. The Taliban’s claim of civilian casualties are false,” Spokesman Col Sonny Leggett tweeted.
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