KABUL: Missiles fired from drone aircraft have killed 16 militants in southern Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said Tuesday, in a rare attack in Afghanistan using the controversial unmanned planes.
A drone was launched after troops observed large numbers of insurgents preparing a strike in the southern province of Helmand’s Naw Zad district on Monday, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. “An unmanned aerial vehicle launched one Hellfire missile killing 13 insurgents,” the force said.
Three other insurgents who “took up previously used firing positions” were also killed in a separate drone strike Monday in the Nad Ali district of Helmand, the heartland of the Taleban-led insurgency, the statement added. Coalition forces rarely use drones in their operations against the Taleban and other insurgents battling the government in Afghanistan.
Bombings by unmanned aircraft are, however, common in neighboring Pakistan, and are a key plank of US strategy to target militants who hide out in the lawless northwest border region then cross into Afghanistan to stage attacks.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials say six people have been killed in southern Afghanistan as protesters claiming that international troops destroyed copies of the Holy Qur’an clashed with security forces.
A NATO spokesman denied that the foreign troops desecrated any copies of the holy book in Sunday’s operation in Helmand province.
The top official in Garmsir district said the protest of about 2,000 people turned violent Tuesday as demonstrators fought with security forces, leaving six civilians dead. A provincial spokesman confirmed six dead but did not say if they were civilians.
NATO forces said only one person was killed during the protest — an insurgent sniper who shot at an Afghan official and was killed by NATO troops. There are more than 113,000 international coalition troops based in Afghanistan fighting an increasingly deadly insurgency, which is aimed at toppling the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
Meanwhile, Afghan women activists praised President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday for nominating a record three women to his Cabinet, and said it was now less likely that women’s rights would be hurt by negotiations with the Taleban.
The newly named female candidates include Suraya Dalil, a Harvard University graduate nominated for the job of public health minister. The other two are Palwasha Hassan, a well-known women’s rights advocate offered the Women’s Affairs Ministry, and Amena Afzali offered the Ministry of Martyrs and the Disabled.
