Mortar shelling kills 4 civilians in E. Afghanistan

MAHMUD-E-RAQI, AFGHANISTAN: AUGUST 1 – Four Afghan civilians, including two women, were killed and one civilian wounded after a mortar shell fired by Taliban militants struck a house in the country’s eastern province of Kapisa on Saturday, local police confirmed on Sunday.

“The incident occurred late on Saturday in Nijrab district. The family household was damaged, and the wounded was shifted to a district hospital,” provincial police spokesman Abdul Shaeq Shurash told Xinhua.

The district has been the scene of heavy clashes between the Taliban militants and the security forces in recent days. The government security forces evicted the Taliban from Nijrab after the militants briefly overran the district in late July.

Afghan civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflicts as more than 1,650 civilians were killed and over 3,250 others wounded due to fighting in the first six months of 2021, according to a report of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

-XINHUA