Afghanistan: Balkh residents claim Taliban destroying their homes

They said the civilian population paid a heavy price during the fighting between the two sides and their livestock and other belongings were lost, reports Tolo News.

Tazarigh village, which is only 8 kilometers away from the center of Kaldar district, saw some of the heaviest fighting between the security forces and the Taliban, reports the news portal.

People even claimed their houses were destroyed in the region.

Mohammad Nazar, one of the residents in the village, told Tolo News: “Here it was our home."

"The Taliban, who are the slaves of Pakistan, came here and destroyed our homes, they planted mines here,” he said.

TOLO News reporter Sayed Mohammad Aref Musvai, reporting from Kaldar, said that the Afghan security forces are still on red alert in the district to respond to possible threats by the Taliban. The security forces liberated Kaldar on Monday.

“The Taliban did not manage to hold out against us, we recaptured the district center in two hours,” said Ahmadullah, a member of the Afghan Special Forces.

Residents in Kaldar said that foreign fighters were also fighting against the Afghan forces along with the Taliban.

“Based on the statistics that we gathered from the National Directorate of Security, foreign fighters were seen among them (Taliban), these foreigners included Chechens and Kazakh and their dead bodies were lying on the battlefield,”  Fazluddin Najamzada, the head of Balkh's security department, told Tolo News.

The Taliban has rejected the claims.