Thursday, May 26 – According to Afghan officials, more than a hundred taliban militants seized a district center in northeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday. The militants were pushed back by Afghan and NATO forces on Wednesday evening from the district center just hours after they seized control over a portion of that same area.
According to Jumaluddin Badar, the provincial governor, around 300 insurgents began surrounding the district center of Do Ab in Nuristan Province four days ago, engaging in sporadic gunfights with the local police as they approached.
He further added that the militants overran the eastern part of the town late Tuesday night, destroying a government building, a mosque and a health clinic with rocket strikes.
Mr. Badar said that Afghan security forces did not have enough weapons ammunition to defend while the insurgents were armed with the heavier and more developed weapons as a result the security forces had to withdraw from the area.
Badly outgunned and running low on ammunition, the police initially fled across the river that divides the district center to regroup on the other side.
Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said the counterstrike began when NATO helicopters dropped about 100 Afghan commandos and an undisclosed number of NATO troops into the center on Wednesday afternoon.
NATO in a statement said, the forces immediately came under fire. They returned fire and called in airstrikes, killing more than 10 insurgents.
According to officials, no NATO or Afghan forces were killed in the counterattack.
