[DAWN] A jacket wallah in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province has killed 29 people, mainly members of illegal gangs that have clashed with security forces and the snuffies in the past, an Afghan official said Sunday.Heyatullah Amiri, district administrative chief of Khan Abad district, said a suicide bomber on foot targeted a meeting of criminal groups late Saturday.
Twenty-five of those killed were members of the gangs, including four leaders, while the remaining four were civilians, he said.
Amiri said 19 others were maimed, including 15 civilians.
Taliban front man Zabihullah Mujahid grabbed credit for the attack in an email sent to media.
The Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country since US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
forces shifted from a combat to a support and training role at the end of last year.
In the northern Badakhshan province, Taliban snuffies hanged a 27-year-old mother of three after accusing her of having extramarital sex, said Nawid Frotan, front man for the provincial governor.
Frotan said she was hanged from a tree before a public gathering early Saturday.
In a separate incident, Taliban snuffies beheaded two local coppers and a civilian in Badakhshan on Saturday.
The snuffies accused the three of spying, Frotan said.
In the eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province, a drone strike carried out by Afghan forces killed 15 snuffies and maimed nine others on Saturday, said Hazrat Hussain Mashreqiwal, front man for the provincial police chief.
Mashreqiwal said a separate
| An Nahar adds: |
Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a police front man in Kunduz, also identified the victims of Saturday's bombing as armed militiamen.
With Afghan forces suffering record casualties as foreign troops pull back, Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title
Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
is increasingly relying on informal militias as a bulwark against the turbans -- a gambit observers say is akin to fighting fire with fire.
The mobilisation of militias represents a complete departure from previous government efforts to disarm these groups, blamed for devastating Afghanistan during the civil war in the 1990s and setting the stage for a Taliban takeover.