The Taliban said Friday that five members of a family, including women and children, were killed after unidentified armed men attacked a house in northern Afghanistan’s Jawzjan province.
Abdul Sattar Halimi, spokesman for the Taliban police command in Jawzjan, said the attack took place around midnight Thursday in the fourth police district of Sheberghan, the provincial capital.
According to Halimi, armed men entered a residential home and opened fire on members of the family inside.
He said those killed included a 7-year-old boy and four women, among them a 13-year-old girl. Two other people were wounded in the attack.
Taliban said two suspects had been identified and arrested during a joint security and intelligence operation.
Halimi said the motive for the attack remained unclear and that efforts were continuing to identify and detain other suspects.
Earlier, local sources told Amu TV that armed men wearing Taliban uniforms had entered the house of an employee of a fuel company in Sheberghan before gunfire erupted inside the home.
The sources said a mother, her daughter and a child were initially reported killed, while three children were wounded. One of the injured children later died while being transferred to a hospital.
This comes as despite Taliban claims of improved nationwide security, reports of targeted killings, armed robberies and violent family-related disputes continue to emerge from several provinces in recent weeks.
