At Least 13 Civilians Killed By Airstrikes In Northeastern Afghanistan - Reports

At least 13 civilians were killed by joint airstrikes carried out by the Afghan Air Force and foreign aircraft in the northeastern province of Kunduz, local media reported on Saturday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2019) At least 13 civilians were killed by joint airstrikes carried out by the Afghan Air Force and foreign aircraft in the northeastern province of Kunduz, local media reported on Saturday.

According to the TOLOnews broadcaster, the airstrikes were carried out on early Friday in the Taloka and Tap-e-Khowak Pak villages on the outskirts of Kunduz city.

"A plane came and bombed the area and martyred 13 members of one family last night at around 1am [20:30 p.m. on Thursday GMT]," a local resident told TOLOnews.

The local residents said they wanted to take the bodies to the governor's office but security forces did not allow them to do that.

"At the moment, we have 13 martyrs, all of them all civilians including children and women.

You can see that what foreign and local forces brought to our people," a relative of one of the victims told TOLOnews.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said that the recent airstrikes in the Kunduz Province had killed at least 58 members of the Taliban Islamist movement. No civilian casualties have been mentioned in the statement.

Afghanistan is suffering from an unstable political, social and security situation due to the activity of the Taliban movement and the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia). The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are currently conducting joint offensive operations to combat terrorism across the country, including in the province of Helmand.