Alwaght- Dozens of Afghan civilians, mostly Shiite Hazaras, were slain in “a brutal, inhumane way” after a group of militants attacked a village in a remote area of Afghanistan’s Sar-e Pul province.
Unknown insurgents raided a security outpost in the Mirzawalang area of Sayaad District in northern province overnight Sunday, said Zabihullah Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
Amani said the assailants were a mixed group of Taliban and Takfiri ISIS militants, and that there were foreign nationals among them.
During the raid, the militants set fire to several mosques, torched at least 30 houses, beheaded a number of villagers and shot dozens of others dead, other officials said.
The carnage occurred “in the province’s predominately Shia village of Mirzawalang after insurgents captured it on Saturday,” said Sar-e Pul Governor Mohammad Zaher Wahdat.
He added that “as many as 30 to 40 innocent people... were brutally shot and killed” in the raid; however, local elders in the village put the number of civilian victims at around 50.
Up to seven members of the Afghan security forces were also killed and dozens of civilians were taken hostage by the militants.
No group has claimed responsibility for the carnage, which happened in the same area where the Taliban militant group had claimed a victory against the Afghan army.
Following the civilian deaths, Taliban said in a statement that they had gained control of the Mirzawalang village, but dismissed reports of the massacre, calling it “hollow propaganda by the enemy.”
Najib Danish, spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry also said, “Fierce fighting continued in Sar-e-Pul over the past two days, unfortunately civilians and military personnel have sustained casualties during the battles.”
President Ashraf Ghani condemned the massacre, saying, “This barbaric act of them (militants) is deemed a direct violation of human rights and a war crime.”
“Criminal terrorists have once again killed civilians, women and children in Sayad district of Sar-e Pul Province, adding to their crimes,” said the president.
A senior government official in the capital, Kabul, said the army has sent more security forces and military equipment, including air force attack aircraft, to the area.
Afghanistan is still grappling with violence well over a decade after the US and its allies invaded the country as part of the so-called war on terror. The invasion removed the Taliban from power, but has failed to stop the militancy.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the ISIS terror group, which is mainly based in the Middle East, has managed to establish a foothold in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
Hundreds of people including women and children have fled the recent wave violence fueled by ISIS terrorists in Nangarhar to take refuge in the provincial capital, Jalalabad.
Some 1,500 internally-displaced people have gathered in an unfinished university building on the outskirts of Jalalabad.
Most of them are from Nangarhar’s Achin and Haska Meyna districts, which have been the scene of heavy clashes between army forces and ISIS militants.
One of the refugees said ISIS militants “brutally attacked civilians, Afghanistan National Army and foreign forces came to the battlefield, then the US, used the mother of all bombs in our village.”
Another displaced Afghan also described how “everything is destroyed by shells and drone aircrafts.” “We have nothing now.”
Back in April, the US dropped the largest non-nuclear ordnance in the American arsenal on Achin, killing at least 90 reported militants.
