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Associated Press

At least 40 civilians at a wedding party were killed on Sunday night during a raid conducted by Afghan special forces and supported by US air strikes on Taliban hideouts in the southern Helmand province, Afghan officials said.
The violence has further rattled Afghanistan, which is facing an upsurge in violence after US-Taliban peace talks to end America’s longest war collapsed earlier this month.
Abdul Majed Akhund, deputy provincial councilman, said most the dead are women and children who were at a wedding ceremony that was taking place in Musa Qala district.
Akhund said that 12 other civilians were wounded and are in hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the province.

There were conflicting reports on the numbers of killed and wounded from different sources, as the area is under Taliban control.
Attahullah Afghan, head of the provincial council, said there were two separate raids in different areas of Musa Qala. The first operation killed six foreign fighters, while the second raid “mistakenly” hit civilians, he said.
Akhund said authorities are investigating reports that civilians attending a wedding died in the raid on Sunday night in Musa Qala.
Afghanistan’s defence ministry said in a statement that as a result of the operations in Musa Qala district, 22 foreign members of the Taliban were killed and 14 arrested. The arrested terrorists include five Pakistani nationals and one Bangladeshi.
China urges US to continue to engage with Taliban after talks in Beijing
“The foreign terrorist group was actively engaged in organising terrorist attacks,” said the statement, which added that a large warehouse of the terrorists’ supplies and equipment was also destroyed.
Omar Zwak, the provincial governor’s spokesman, said 14 insurgents including six foreigners were killed during the raid. They were investigating reports of civilian casualties.
The deadly strike came after a drone attack last week in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province blamed on US forces killed at least 16 and wounded tens of others, most of them civilians. US forces said that attack was targeting Islamic State militants.


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Afghanistan

Dozens of civilians at wedding party killed in US-backed raid on Taliban in Afghanistan

Afghan villagers carry a body on a stretcher outside a hospital following an airstrike in Lashkar Gah. Photo: AFP

epa07863762 People react beside the bodies of their relatives who were killed in an air raid and ground assault on a Taliban hideout by Afghan special forces, in Helmand, Afghanistan, 23 September 2019. According to reports, dozens of civilians, part of a wedding procession, were killed when they came under fire during the operation targeting a house used by the Taliban in Musa Qala district that is under the control of militants. EPA-EFE/WATAN YAR

China urges US to continue to engage with Taliban after talks in Beijing as conflict continues in Afghanistan

President Donald Trump said talks between US diplomats and the Taliban were “dead”. Photo: AP

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. China's government called on Washington on Tuesday to "stop the unreasonable crackdown" on Huawei following the tech giant's indictment in the U.S. on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

FILE PHOTO: Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani gestures during his election campaign rally in Kabul, Afghanistan September 13, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/File Photo

Does Beijing grasp the portent of embracing Afghanistan and the Taliban?

China has invested in security forces along Afghanistan’s border. Photo: AFP

FILE PHOTO:Taliban walk as they celebrate ceasefire in Ghanikhel district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan June 16, 2018. picture taken June 16, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz/File Photo

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi looks on as he addresses media representatives during a press conference alongside his Senegalese counterpart at The Foreign Ministry in Dakar on January 6, 2019. (Photo by SEYLLOU / AFP)

epa07132646 Afghan security officials inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on 31 October 2018. At least seven people were killed and seven others including two children injured after a blast targeted a vehicle of the employees of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison. EPA-EFE/HEDAYATULLAH AMID

This photograph taken on March 31, 2018 shows a humvee vehicle firing a rocket as Afghan security forces take part in a military operation in Jurm district Badakhshan province. / AFP PHOTO / SHARIF SHAYEQ

Donald Trump calls off secret peace summit with Taliban and Afghan president at Camp David

Donald Trump cancelled a previously-undisclosed summit at Camp David, the US president’s retreat. Photo: White House

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 27, 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) takes the stage after being introduced by former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. - US President Donald Trump said Saturday August 7 he had called off a secret summit with the Taliban and Afghanistan's leader, abruptly slamming the door on a year of diplomacy to end America's longest war. (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

(190906) -- BEIJING, Sept. 6, 2019 (Xinhua) -- A destroyed vehicle is carried away from the site of a car bomb attack in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Sept. 5, 2019. At least 10 people, all civilians, have been confirmed dead and 42 others injured as a car bomb rocked Shash Darak area in the Police District 9 of Kabul city on Thursday, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. (Photo by Rahmatullah Alizadah/Xinhua)

FILE - In this May 28, 2019 file photo, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader, third from left, arrives with other members of the Taliban delegation for talks in Moscow, Russia. U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban have resumed negotiations on ending America’s longest war. A Taliban member said Khalilzad also had a one-on-one meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019, with Baradar, the Taliban’s lead negotiator, in Qatar, where the insurgent group has a political office. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

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Afghan special forces, supported by US air strikes, conducted raids on Taliban hideouts in Helmand province
The first killed six fighters and the second ‘mistakenly’ hit civilians, officials say



Afghan special forces, supported by US air strikes, conducted raids on Taliban hideouts in Helmand province, with one killing six fighters and the next one ‘mistakenly’ hitting civilians.
