9 insurgents killed in northern Afghanistan

An Afghan official says that nine insurgents have been killed during a raid by Afghan security forces backed by local citizens in the country's north.

Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the police chief in Kunduz province, said today that four insurgents were wounded in the battle in the Khan Abad district.

Five local civilians, who participated in the fight against the insurgents, were also wounded, Hussaini added.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, hundreds in the eastern province of Paktika protested on Saturday against the continued publishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, said Mukhlis Afghan, the governor's spokesman.
 

President Ashraf Ghani has strongly condemned the latest caricature on the cover of the new issue and called it an insult to Islam and the Muslim world.