The Afghan forces have rescued eight soldiers from the Taliban captivity during an operation conducted in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast in a statement said the operations were conducted in the vicinity of Daid Merdad district.

The statement further added at least 65 militants were killed and at least 15 others sustained injuries during the operations.

The Afghan forces also arrested three militants during the same operations, the 203rd Thunder Corps added in its statement.

In the meantime, the Thunder Corps says at least eight Afghan soldiers who were kept as hostages by the Taliban militants were also rescued during the operations.

The anti-government armed militant groups including Taliban have not commented regarding the report so far.

Maidan Wardak is among the relatively volatile provinces in Central parts of the country where the Taliban militants are actively operating in some of its districts.

This comes as the Afghan armed forces are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations in Maidan Wardak and other restive parts of the country.

The Afghan Military claims that the airstrikes in western Farah province have left at least 46 militants dead while 38 thousand kgs of explosives have been destroyed, like reported by khaama.com.

The 207th Zafar Corps of the Afghan Military in the West in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Khak Safid district.

The statement further added that 46 militants were killed and 6 others were wounded during the same airstrikes.

According to 207 Zafar Corps, at least five vehicles, 2 motorcycles, and 38 thousand kilograms of explosives were also destroyed during air raids.

The anti-government armed militant groups including Taliban militants have not commented regarding the report so far.

Farah was among the relatively calm provinces in West of Afghanistan but the security situation of the province has deteriorated during the recent years.

The Taliban militants are active in some districts of the province and often carry out attacks against the government institutions and security forces.

The foreign forces have stormed the hideouts of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS-K) in eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan, leaving a number of militants dead or wounded, like reported by khaama.com.

The local officials in Kunar said the operations were conducted late on Sunday night in the vicinity of Watapur district.

Provincial Security Chief Amir Mohammad Zaman confirmed the raid and said at least three ISIS Khurasan militants were killed during the raid and two others were arrested.

He said a commander of the terror group identified as Abuzar was among those killed during the operations.

In the meantime, the 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East said the U.S. forces based in Afghanistan carried out airstrikes using unmanned aerial vehicles, targeting the ISIS militants in Watapur district that left at least two dead.

The anti-government armed militant groups including ISIS Khurasan loyalists have not commented regarding the report so far.

Kunar is among the relatively volatile provinces in East of Afghanistan where both the Taliban, ISIS Khurasan, and militants affiliated with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network are active in some of its districts and often carry out terrorist related activities.

The coalition forces in Afghanistan have released a new video of airstrikes on Taliban militants in southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

According to a short statement released by the coalition forces, the airstrikes were carried out on 10^th September in the vicinity of Nawa district, leaving at least 30 militants dead.

“U.S. Forces in Afghanistan conducted two kinetic strikes against Taliban leaders and fighters assembled at adjacent compounds in Nawah district, Ghazni province, Afghanistan, September 10, 2018. The double-structure strike resulted in 30 Taliban killed,” the statement said.

Ghazni is among the relatively volatile provinces in southeastern parts of the country where the Taliban militants are actively operating in some of its districts.

The group launched a coordinated attack on the provincial capital of Ghazni province earlier last month that lasted for several days.

According to reports, the attack on Ghazni city inflicted heavy casualties on civilians besides the Taliban militants and security personnel also sustained heavy casualties during the clashes.

At least 95 militants were killed or wounded during the military operations in southeastern Paktia province of Afghanistan, like reported by khaama.com.

The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast said the militants were killed or wounded during the operations in Zurmat district.

According to a statement released by the 203rd Thunder Corps, the Afghan forces killed at least 35 militants during the operations Thunder-2 in Chona area of Zurmat.

The statement further added at least 60 militants also sustained injuries and the dead bodies of at least 8 militants were left behind.

In the meantime, the U.S. forces based in Afghanistan carried out airstrikes in Nawa district of Ghazni province leaving at least 17 militants dead, the statement added.

According to 203rd Thunder Corps, the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Jamal village and as a result a large number of militants were also wounded.

Paktia has been among the relatively calm provinces in southeastern parts of the country during the recent years but the security situation of the province has deteriorated during the recent months.

Taliban militants have reportedly killed dozens of Afghan security forces in fresh attacks on several government targets, like reported by rferl.org.

Safiullah Amiri, deputy chairman of the regional council in the northern Kunduz Province, told RFE/RL that 15 Afghan military personnel were killed in an attack in the Dashti Archi district that began late on September 9.

Amiri said that another 18 security personnel were injured in the attack.

A security source in Dashti Archi said Taliban militants attacked several security teams in the district.

In the northern province of Jawzjan, meanwhile, provincial police chief Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani said at least eight police were killed in early-morning fighting with the Taliban in the Khamyab district on September 10, the Associated Press reported.

Jawzjani told AP that Afghan troops were forced to retreat from a headquarters in the district in order to prevent civilian casualties. He said seven Taliban militants were killed and eight others wounded.

In the northern city of Sar-e Pul, the capital of the Afghan province of the same name, the Taliban carried out overnight attacks on military and police installations, officials and security sources said.

Provincial council member Asif Sadiqi was quoted by dpa as saying that at least 17 soldiers were killed in the attacks in Sar-e Pul, which he said the militants launched from three directions.

Director-General of Policy and Strategy of The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ashraf Haidari said on Wednesday that “the Taliban insurgency has enabled several terrorist networks with global and regional reach to operate out of Afghanistan”, like reported by tolonews.com.

“At the same time, this imposed insecurity, has enabled a permissive environment for mass drug cultivation and production in Afghanistan, which now provides more than 90 percent of regional and global demand for drugs,” Haidari said at the Indian Ocean Conference 2018 themed “Building Regional Architectures”.

He said that in the past 17 years, Afghanistan has been a “victim of external aggression in the form of terrorism,” adding that “as a proxy of a coastal state, the Taliban have daily killed and maimed innocent Afghans, while destroying the infrastructure that should help connect and integrate Afghanistan with our surrounding resourceful regions in the North and South for increased trade, business and investment.”

In turn, revenue from the drug trade finance terrorism and fuel dysfunctional corruption that undermines governance and rule of law, which together destabilize drug producing and transit countries alike, he said.

He noted that because of the interconnectedness of these imposed security challenges, Afghanistan is facing a complex humanitarian crisis with diminishing human security.

“This makes our country a major source of refugees and asylum seekers, who are often ferried by human smugglers to Europe, Australia and elsewhere. As we see, what is imposed on and happens in countries like Afghanistan directly affect maritime security,” he said.

He pointed out that the best way to fight poverty that feeds terrorism is to foster political and security confidence-building through regional economic cooperation.

“The latter can serve as an important enabler in deepening connectivity, enhancing competitiveness and productivity, lowering transaction costs, and expanding markets in any region,” according to Haidari.

In turn he said Afghanistan has already put forth a number of strategic solutions for the adoption and implementation by the country’s coastal and landlocked neighbors; these include:

The Heart of Asia–Istanbul Process (HOA-IP);

The Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA);

The Kabul Process for Peace and Security Cooperation;

The Joint Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Narcotics Strategy;

The Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS).

He also said that the Afghan government has worked hard to establish these Afghan-led processes to help secure regional cooperation for Afghanistan’s stabilization and sustainable development.

“It goes without saying that a stable Afghanistan at the heart of rising Asia will help ensure stability and prosperity throughout our surrounding regions. That is why it is in the best short- and long-term interests of coastal and non-coastal countries to participate in and to double and triple their efforts to achieve the shared goals of these regional security and development cooperation mechanisms,” he said.

In November, the 7th Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

The conference focused on “Deepening Connectivity and Expanding Trade through Investment Infrastructure and Improving Synergy.”

RECCA remains a major opportunity for Afghanistan’s coastal and landlocked neighbors to take stock of the progress made so far, and, besides working together to address the challenges and bottlenecks, they should move on to commit the financing and investment needed with respect to the priority projects in the key areas of energy, transport networks, trade and transit facilitation, communications, and business-to-business and labor support, Haidari said.

He also said that the unimpeded implementation of the Chabahar Port—which involves Afghanistan, India, and Iran – is of importance, as it will further enhance connectivity through Afghanistan and facilitate our integration with the regional and global markets.

“As work continues this and other connectivity land and sea projects, we have launched air-corridors for trade, exporting Afghan products to markets near and far in the region,” he said.

Moreover, last December, the 7th Ministerial Conference of HOA-IP, with its political, security, and economic confidence-building measures implementation mechanism, took place in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Afghanistan aims at deepening synergies among the interconnected projects of RECCA and HOA-IP, maximizing their impact on sustainable development not only in Afghanistan but also throughout our surrounding regions, he said.

“This should encourage the country-participants to assess their shared security and development needs and to bolster their engagement with Afghanistan accordingly, in order to initiate the implementation of the proposed projects with win-win benefits,” Haidari said.

He said that because sustainable development is impossible without durable stability, last year, Afghanistan re-launched the Kabul Process for Peace and Security in Afghanistan.

“Through this Afghan-owned and Afghan-led process, a results-oriented peace strategy has been laid out, the key purpose of which is to engage in unconditional, direct talks with the Taliban. Our peace strategy aims to separate reconcilable Taliban insurgents from transnational terrorist networks. But to succeed in this endeavor, we reply on honest and tangible regional cooperation, foremost on the closure of the sanctuaries and other forms of support, which the Taliban enjoy in the region,” according to Haidari.

He says that in parallel to our peace strategy, the Afghan government is pursuing a joint counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics strategy.

The two strategies mutually reinforce one another, as our counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics efforts not only contribute to similar efforts at the regional and global levels but also advance Afghan peace efforts by increasing the number of reconcilable Taliban, who otherwise would refuse to discontinue violence, he said.

In addition, the Afghan government has worked hard to engage with Pakistan on a state-to-state basis to secure the country’s cooperation both in fighting terrorism with no distinction and in persuading the Taliban leadership to participate in the intra-Afghan peace process for a political negotiated settlement, he said.

In this regard, the inaugural meeting of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) took place in Kabul in late July, as the APAPPS five working groups discussed issues of counter-terrorism, intelligence-sharing, peace efforts, trade and investment, and refugees, he added.

“For our part, the Afghan side firmly committed to working with relevant Pakistani institutional stakeholders to implement the key goals of the five working groups, in line with the core principles of the APAPPS agreed between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he mentioned.

He also said that considering these major opportunities for regional security and development cooperation, “we welcomed and strongly support the South Asia strategy of the United States.”

The strategy has followed a conditions-based approach to helping stabilize Afghanistan, and its key objective is to help close terrorist safe sanctuaries in Pakistan. Success in this necessary endeavor should help reduce violence across Afghanistan, compelling the Taliban to opt for peace, an outcome desired by every Afghan.

“That is why we strongly believe that the full execution of the US strategy, in partnership with coastal and littoral states that share Afghanistan’s security and development interests, will not only help stabilize our country but also ensure security as a precondition for sustainable development across our surrounding regions in the Asian continent,” he added.

Around 25 Afghan army soldiers have been killed after their convoy was ambushed by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s northern Faryab province, officials say according to sbs.com.

Around 20 others were wounded and 16 were taken hostage after hours of fighting in Qaisar district on Monday, Sayed Abdul Baqi Hashemi, a provincial council member, told dpa on Tuesday.

The convoy of around 80 vehicles abandoned a lone army base in Gormach district and was heading to Maimana, the capital of Faryab when it was ambushed, according to Hashemi and Mohammad Nadir Saeedi, another provincial council member.

Between 10 to 20 vehicles were left on the battlefield together with soldiers’ bodies, both provincial council members said, adding that the vehicles were then destroyed by airstrikes on Monday night.

Saeedi said that with the base abandoned, Gormach district is now fully controlled by the Taliban as forces that were supposed to come and take over from neighbouring Badghis province never came.

Taliban militants have ramped up attacks on Afghan security forces, their facilities and the Afghan government in the past few months. Security forces are stretched thin across the war-torn country.

Dozens of Afghan army soldiers were killed in fighting with Taliban militants after their base was surrounded in Faryab province earlier this month.

Around 13.8 per cent of Afghan districts are under Taliban control while another 30 per cent are contested, according to a July report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

The top leader of the so-called Islamic State (IS) or Daesh outfit in Afghanistan was killed by long-range missiles fired by United States-led NATO coalition forces that struck IS hideouts in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, according to a statement Monday and like reported by bernama.com.

Abu Saad Erhabi, together with 14 IS militants, was killed when the missiles struck IS hideouts in the Waziri Tangai locality of the Khogyani district in Nangarhar province on Sunday, said the statement issued by Afghan Army Corps 201 Selab based in the region.

Quoting the statement, Xinhua news agency said seven militants of the group were also injured after the attack in the mountainous district, southwest of provincial capital Jalalabad city.

Two IS command posts, together with large amounts of explosive and weapons were destroyed following the strikes.

Erhabi was the fourth IS leader in Afghanistan to be killed since mid-2017 in eastern Afghan region, according to officials

The Special Forces of the Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security (NDS), stormed a key hideout of the ISIS terrorist group in eastern Nangarhar province, like reported by khaama.com.

The provincial government media office in a statement said the hideout was used by the militants of the group as a launch pad for the attacks in Jalalabad city.

The statement further added that the operation was conducted late on Wednesday night in the vicinity of Kandi Bagha area of Chaparhar district.

At least one ISIS group member was killed during the operation and two others were arrested alive while six other suspects were also rounded up on charges of having links with the terror group, the statement added.

In the meantime, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), says the Special Forces have also confiscated and destroyed some explosives while three Ak-47 rifles were seized.

The source further added that the local residents and the security personnel have not sustained casualties during the operation.

Nangarhar has been among the relatively calm provinces since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 but the anti-government armed militants have been attempting to expand their foothold in this province during the recent years.

However, the Afghan armed forces are busy conducting counter-terrorism operations to suppress the militant groups.