On February 1, the Special Force Unit of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) conducted a series of operations from air and ground against the Taliban in the villages of Osmankhail, Mohammadkhail, Chawlawk and Akhtarkhail in the Maiwand district of the southern Kandahar province, according to the Afghan Tolo TV.
The head of military operations in Maiwand district, Sultan Mohammad revealed to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE\RL) that the operations targeted Taliban fighters who were preparing to launch coordinated attacks on checkpoints of the Afghan Army in Panjwai and Maiwand districts.
RFE\RL reported that over 83 fighters of the Taliban had been killed by the NDS Special Force Unit. 32 suspects were also arrested and an explosives workshop plus 10 hideouts of the Taliban were destroyed during the operations, according to Tolo.
Hours before the NDS operations, 14 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their gathering in Maiwand district, according to the Taliban news agency Voice of Jihad. The Taliban pre-emptive attack proves that the group knew in advance about some of the NDS operations in the Maiwand district and manged to foil some of them. Most likely, this was caused by an operation security breach within the Afghan military.