Afghan Special Forces broke into a pair of Taliban prisons Thursday in southern Afghanistan and freed more than 100 prisoners, including women held by the Taliban, an Afghan official told VOA.
General Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, told VOA that Afghan security forces acted on intelligence received about two compounds in the Kajaki district of Helmand province, where insurgents were holding dozens of people.
"The operation was conducted based on an intelligence tip, and Afghan Special Forces managed to free 105 people, 103 of them civilians, including five women," Radmanesh said.
Afghan officials did not give details about why the civilians were being held by the Taliban. Radmanesh said an investigation was underway to determine the charges on which the prisoners were being held.
"We have just transferred the freed prisoners to an army corps, and an investigation will be conducted with them," Radmanesh said.
Radmanesh said four militants were killed and one was captured during the operation.
Taliban reaction
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed in a tweet the Afghan security forces operation and the release of "93 criminals." He tweeted, "93 criminals accused of murder, robbery, drug use and other crimes were taken by American occupiers and their slaves from two prisons."
Mujahid, however, rejected claims that members of the insurgent group were killed in the Afghan security forces operation.
Thursday's operation was not the first time Afghan security forces conducted a night raid on a Taliban prison.
Last week, Afghan military forces freed 15 people from a Taliban prison in Helmand's Marjah district.
"Fourteen civilians and one member of local police were freed from a Taliban prison," General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, 215th Army Corps commander, told VOA.
Cooperation with government
Afghan officials claim the Taliban are imprisoning people on charges of cooperating with the Afghan government and accuse the insurgent group of torturing inmates.
"Yesterday In [northern] Takhar province, the Taliban attacked civilians, burned down their houses, then looted their stores. And the terrorists also killed three female nurses in a clinic," Radmanesh told VOA.
The Taliban denied the killing of any female nurses.
Focus on Helmand
Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, seems to be the focus in recent weeks of Afghan and U.S. forces.
A major U.S. strike last week against a Taliban command-and-control center in the province killed more than 50 Taliban leaders.
General John Nicholson, commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, confirmed the U.S. strikes during a videoconference briefing Wednesday at the Pentagon.
"The senior Taliban leader who was there was the deputy shadow governor of Helmand, and [there were] a number of other leaders underneath him. We are still assessing the specific names and positions, but what it looks like [is] it was a group of commanders meeting in part to discuss the operation in Farah that many of them just participated in," Nicholson said.
A statement by the U.S.-led NATO Resolute Support Mission, which Nicholson leads, said that between May 17 and May 26, more than 70 senior Taliban leaders were killed in Helmand, including the commander of the militant group's Special Forces group, known as the Red Unit.
Helmand is a strategic province for the insurgents because the militants rely on the poppy trade there to fund the insurgency.
Azizullah Popal contributed to this report from Kandahar province.
