Ambush by ISIL kills 10 police

KABUL // At least 10 Afghan police officers and the wife of a commander were killed in an ambush by ISIL militants in the northern province of Zawzjan, a provincial official said yesterday.

Mohammad Ghafori, spokesman for the Zawzjan provincial governor, said the officers were ambushed on Friday as they were coming out of a mosque.

The wife of the police commander heard about her husband being shot and rushed to the scene, where she was also killed.

ISIL- linked militants have been active in Afghanistan’s eastern regions but have recently also begun operating in the north of the country.

News of the Zawzjan killings came as the interior ministry yesterday said 38 militants, including 23 ISIL fighters, had been killed in operations conducted by Afghan security over the previous two days.

Eight other militants were wounded and six arrested in the operations in the eastern province of Nangarhar and Helmand in the south. Meanwhile, in Laghman province, also in the east, two pupils were killed when a mortar struck a school classroom, the education ministry said.

Five other children in the class in Mihterlam, the provincial capital, were wounded.

It was not clear who had fired the mortar but there were unconfirmed reports that the Afghan security forces had missed a target and hit the school.