Taliban commander among 8 militants killed in Afghanistan

Afghan security forces sit in a Humvee vehicle amid fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces in Kunduz, Afghanistan, May 19, 2020 /AFP

Eight militants including key Taliban commander Mullah Khaksar have been confirmed dead as a clash erupted in Shahrak district of western Afghanistan's Ghor province on Sunday, according an Afghan army statement.

The clash, according to the statement, flared up after a group of Taliban insurgents under Mullah Khaksar stormed security checkpoints in the Kharistan area of the troubled Shahrak district in the early hours of Sunday and troops returned fire killing eight insurgents including Khaksar, forcing them to flee.

The Taliban has yet to comment on the situation in the troubled district.

Gor province, with Firoz Koah as its capital, has been the scene of Taliban-led militancy over the past couple of years

Washington has dispatched a special envoy for Afghanistan to press for peace talks between the government and Taliban fighters, the U.S. State Department said on Saturday.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad departed on Friday to travel to Doha, Kabul, Islamabad, Oslo and Sofia, the department said in a statement.

The United States is scaling down its troop numbers in Afghanistan under an agreement struck in February with the Taliban.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad speaks at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, April 27, 2019 /AFP

The agreement aimed to pave the way for formal peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Under the agreement, the Afghan government would release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban would free 1,000 prisoners of the government.

However, the slow pace of the release of prisoners has delayed the intra-Afghan dialogue, which was scheduled to start on March 10.

Moreover, in early July, the Afghan government reportedly suspended the release of the last batch of Taliban inmates over their involvement in serious crimes, which had widened the two side's split.

Khalilzad plans to press for a deal on prisoner exchanges and a reduction in violence, two issues that have hampered progress toward starting peace talks.

"Although significant progress has been made on prisoner exchanges, the issue requires additional effort to fully resolve," read the statement.

On Wednesday, Khalilzad condemned an attack by Afghan government forces that killed 45 people, including civilians, in airstrikes against Taliban fighters in a western province bordering Iran.

(With input from Xinhua and Reuters)