LOGAR: Some 700 Taliban fighters armed with heavy machine guns are battling Afghan security forces in Logar province, just outside the capital Kabul, Afghan officials said yesterday.
“There are some 700 of them and they are fighting Afghan forces for territorial control and they have also brought with them makeshift mobile (health) clinics,” Niaz Mohammad Amiri, the provincial governor of Logar said.
No longer pinned down by US air cover, Taliban fighters are attacking Afghan military posts in large numbers with aim of taking and holding ground, a shift from the hit-and-run strikes to posses of gunmen, explosives and suicide attacks.
Refugees refuse to vacate schools
ISLAMABAD: The internally displaced persons from North Waziristan Agency have refused to vacate schools in Bannu district to the worry of the administration.
The administration had asked IDPs occupying school buildings in the district to shift to camps in Bakkakhel today, saying these educational institutions will resume classes on September 1 after summer vacations. Earlier, August 10 was the deadline for the purpose.
Yesterday, hundreds of IDPs sheltering in schools demonstrated outside the Bannu Press Club to demand the withdrawal of the deadline.
Holding placards and shouting slogans, they said they won’t vacate schools until they were provided with shelter at some other place.
The protesters also demanded their early repatriation saying the army claimed to have cleared most North Waziristan of militants. Agencies
