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Twelve Afghan Soldiers Killed by Their Colleagues While They Slept | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An Afghan official said yesterday that up to 12 Afghan soldiers were killed while they slept by two of their colleagues at a site near the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Sher Aziz Kamawal, a senior police commander in Kunduz, said that the two soldiers, who are suspected of having links to the Taliban, fled and joined the militant organisation after they carried out the attack during the night.

The site of the attack is one of many sites that form a protective ring around Kunduz which was captured by the Taliban for a brief period a year ago. This was the first time that the Taliban controlled a provincial capital since it lost power in 2001.

Afghan and international military forces in Afghanistan have been attacked by soldiers and this has undermined confidence and morale in the ranks of these forces. Afghanistan’s government forces, supported and trained by the west, are fighting different militant groups including the Taliban, which says it is fighting to expel foreign troops and reinstate the fundamentalist regime to power.

According to a military statement, 12 ISIS and Taliban militants were killed in separate military operations that took place in several districts in the province of Nangarhar, eastern Afghanistan.

The statement said that air strikes on rebel positions in the areas of Itsheen and Cote were carried out late last night. According to Pajhwok Afghan News, 7 ISIS fighters were killed during the raids. Meanwhile, five Taliban militants were killed during an operation by security forces in the town of Chaparhar according to Nimatallah Noorzai, the head of the town’s local administration. He added that there were no casualties amongst civilians and security forces during the operations. The Taliban and ISIS have not commented on these operations.