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More than 50 Taliban fighters killed in battle Friday, says Afghan official

<p>Taliban militants in Pakistan have killed at least 126 people, most of them children, during an attack on a military-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning.</p><p><a href="http://rt.com/news/214707-pakistan-school-hostage-taliban/" target="_blank">RT reports</a> that there were around 500 students and teachers inside Peshawar’s Army Public School at the time of the attack. While most escaped, some were taken hostage.</p><p>Shortly after the attack started, the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, took credit, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/16/world/asia/pakistan-peshawar-school-attack/" target="_blank">telling CNN</a> six suicide bombers had scaled the school’s walls in the morning with orders to kill older students.</p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435" target="_blank">According to the BBC</a>, many of the casualties were the result of a suicide blast from one of the militants. There were <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1151203/ttp-militants-storm-peshawar-school-131-killed" target="_blank">multiple explosions</a> and reports of gunfire during the attack as Pakistani security forces worked to free the remaining hostages.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/AsimBajwaISPR" target="_blank">According to the Pakistani military</a>, all six militants have been killed, but clearing the school and rescuing hostages was delayed by IEDs. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4oQl2g3pE" target="_blank">Geo TV</a>)</p><p>A Taliban spokesperson has said the attack is revenge for Pakistan’s recent ground offensive against the Taliban in the country’s northwestern Waziristan tribal area. The Pakistani military claims to have killed more than 1,000 militants in its operations since June. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fts9sseVQg" target="_blank">Channel 4</a>)</p><p>Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MalalaFund/posts/976645455682640" target="_blank">condemned the attack</a> calling it a <strong>"senseless and cold blooded act of terror"</strong>. The Taliban shot Yousafzai in 2011 for advocating women's rights in Pakistan. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sIP08PZ6I" target="_blank">United Nations</a>)</p><p>Calling the attack a national tragedy, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has convened a meeting of all of the country’s political parties to come up with a strategy against further attacks.</p>
<p>Taliban militants in Pakistan have killed at least 126 people, most of them children, during an attack on a military-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning.</p><p><a href="http://rt.com/news/214707-pakistan-school-hostage-taliban/" target="_blank">RT reports</a> that there were around 500 students and teachers inside Peshawar’s Army Public School at the time of the attack. While most escaped, some were taken hostage.</p><p>Shortly after the attack started, the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, took credit, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/16/world/asia/pakistan-peshawar-school-attack/" target="_blank">telling CNN</a> six suicide bombers had scaled the school’s walls in the morning with orders to kill older students.</p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435" target="_blank">According to the BBC</a>, many of the casualties were the result of a suicide blast from one of the militants. There were <a href="http://www.dawn.com/news/1151203/ttp-militants-storm-peshawar-school-131-killed" target="_blank">multiple explosions</a> and reports of gunfire during the attack as Pakistani security forces worked to free the remaining hostages.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/AsimBajwaISPR" target="_blank">According to the Pakistani military</a>, all six militants have been killed, but clearing the school and rescuing hostages was delayed by IEDs. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h4oQl2g3pE" target="_blank">Geo TV</a>)</p><p>A Taliban spokesperson has said the attack is revenge for Pakistan’s recent ground offensive against the Taliban in the country’s northwestern Waziristan tribal area. The Pakistani military claims to have killed more than 1,000 militants in its operations since June. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fts9sseVQg" target="_blank">Channel 4</a>)</p><p>Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MalalaFund/posts/976645455682640" target="_blank">condemned the attack</a> calling it a <strong>"senseless and cold blooded act of terror"</strong>. The Taliban shot Yousafzai in 2011 for advocating women's rights in Pakistan. (Video via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_sIP08PZ6I" target="_blank">United Nations</a>)</p><p>Calling the attack a national tragedy, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has convened a meeting of all of the country’s political parties to come up with a strategy against further attacks.</p>
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — More than 50 Taliban militants were killed Friday after the Taliban launched a major offensive in the northern province of Kunduz, an Afghan official said.

Abdul Wasay Basil, spokesman for the provincial governor, said that more than 60 Taliban fighters were wounded, and that clashes were still ongoing.

Col. Ghulam Azrat Karimi, spokesman for the Afghan Army in Kunduz province, said Taliban fighters began attacking Afghan security forces early Friday morning.

Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the Kunduz provincial police chief, said 40 Taliban fighters were killed and eight wounded. Four members of the Afghan security forces were killed and six wounded in the battles, Jangalbagh said.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the NDS national intelligence service issued a statement Friday claiming that a senior Taliban official had been captured. The statement claimed that Qari Youssef, the Taliban's shadow governor for Ghazni province, was captured Tuesday while dressed in women's clothing to avoid arrest.

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