Kabul
Thirty Taliban insurgents, six of them foreign militants, were killed by an explosion during a gathering for a “bomb-making training” session in northern Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said.
“As a result of the explosion of a mine, 30 Taliban, including six foreign nationals who were professional mine-makers, were killed,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
“This incident happened as a number of Taliban . . . had gathered for mine-making training . . . ” it added. The incident took place at 9.15 a.m. in the Qitla village of the Dawlat Abad district of Balkh province, which lies some 450 km to the north of the capital city Kabul and shares its border with Uzbekistan, ministry officials said.
Fawad Aman, a spokesman for the ministry, said: “There were no survivors from the blast,” calling it the “deadliest of its kind” for the insurgents.
“In the past, the enemies would have suffered like six, eight or 10 people while either planting a bomb or making a mine, but this is the first time they suffered such heavy losses,” he told Arab News.
The Taliban confirmed the blast but denied reports of any loss of lives. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said that the explosion had occurred last night in a room used for storing ammunition and “not today as reported by government officials.”— AN
