Kabul: At least 33 Taliban militants have been killed in a military airstrike in Afghanistan. Heavy airstrikes were carried out on militant strongholds in the Kaldar and Shotepa districts of Balkh province. Nineteen militants were seriously injured, military sources said. The attack destroyed a large cache of weapons and ammunition in the possession of the militants. Taliban militants have begun to occupy several areas in the wake of the US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on May 1. The agreement comes on September 11, the twentieth anniversary of the US terrorist attack. Former army chief Bismillah Khan Mohammed has been appointed defense minister to fight the Taliban. Bismillah Khan was the military chief who led the fight against the Taliban in the 1990s.
