10 Police Officers Killed in Ambush by Militants in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/world/asia/afghanistan-isis-police-officers-killed.html

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KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 10 police officers and the wife of a police commander were killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants in the northern province of Zawzjan, a provincial official said on Saturday.

Mohammad Reza Ghafori, a spokesman for the Zawzjan provincial governor, said that the police officers were ambushed Friday as they left a mosque. The wife of the police commander heard about her husband being shot and rushed to the scene, where she was also killed.

Militants linked to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, have been active in Afghanistan’s eastern regions, but have recently begun operating in the north of the country as well.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that around 38 militants, including 23 Islamic State fighters, were killed in separate operations conducted by Afghan security forces in the eastern and southern regions of the country over the past two days.

Eight other militants were wounded and six were arrested in the operations, which were conducted in districts across the Nangarhar and Helmand provinces, the statement added.

In Laghman Province, in the east, two students were killed when a mortar shell struck a school classroom, a news release from the Education Ministry said. The statement said that five other students were wounded inside the classroom in Mihterlam, the province’s capital.

There were unconfirmed reports that the mortar was fired by Afghan security forces and missed its target and hit the school. The report could not immediately be verified by provincial or government officials.