A bloody conflict between security forces and Taliban militants have claimed the lives of 10 armed insurgents in the northern Jauzjan province, while a bomb blast attributed to the Taliban outfit injured 24 civilians in the neighboring Balkh province on Thursday, officials said. "Ten Taliban fighters have been killed and five others injured as a clash erupted in Qukal Dash area of Faizabad district, Jauzjan province Thursday morning," a security official, Zabit Khan told Xinhua. Khan, who commanded a unit of local police, said that the clash erupted after a group of Taliban militants stormed some police checkpoints in Qukal Dash area of Faizabad district early morning. Police returned fire, triggering a gun battle. The official, without commenting on possible casualties of security forces, said that the firefight is continuing in the area. In another violent incident, which occurred in Jauzjan's neighboring Balkh province on the same day, 24 people, all civilians sustained injuries in a bomb blast. The blast rocked a bazaar in Dawlatabad district of the northern Balkh province on Thursday, injuring two dozen civilians, a local official said. "The terrorists planted explosive device in the cavities of a rickshaw and detonated it among people in the bazaar of Dawlatabad district at around noon, injuring 24 innocent civilians, some in critical condition," district governor, Amir Shah told Xinhua. Some women and children are also among the victims, the official added. Meanwhile, a doctor in Mazar-e-Sharif hospital in talks with Xinhua confirmed that 16 injured people, including a child and four women, had been taken from the Dawlatabad district to hospital for medical treatment. Eyewitnesses, however, said a few people died in the blast. An eyewitness who refused to be named told Xinhua that he saw two dead bodies at the site of the bombing. The district governor blamed the Taliban outfit for organizing the bloody bombing, saying militants loyal to Taliban often conduct subversive activities to terrorize the people. Taliban militants in an online statement on Thursday claimed that the militant group had killed seven police and injured five others in Balkh and Jauzjan provinces.
