At least 16 people were killed in clashes between Taliban security forces and a group of armed men in Afghanistan.
The bodies of seven children, three women and six men were brought to the hospital on Sunday after the three-hour firefight had ended in a residential building in the western Afghan city of Herat, the German press agency learned from the hospital and from a local journalist.
The spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry, Qari Saeed Khosty, spoke of three hostage-takers who had been killed and who had been hiding in the house. Pictures from the battle site showed a completely destroyed house. Local media initially reported that the Taliban had taken action there against a breakaway faction that had joined the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS).
The militant Islamist Taliban have fought ISIS since they appeared in Afghanistan in early 2015.
Since the Taliban came to power in August, IS has carried out numerous deadly attacks, above all on the security forces of the Taliban, which is also Sunni, and Shiite religious sites.
That month, ISIS also committed itself to two major bomb attacks in the north and south of the country, in which at least a hundred civilians were killed.