TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people have left their houses for safer places as fighting continued in Dasht-e-Qala district of the northern Takhar province, the head of the Refugees Department in the restive province said Wednesday.
"Although we have no exact number of the displaced families, we can say that hundreds of families have left their houses for safer places to escape the war," Mohammad Yasin Labib told Xinhua.
However, Labib said that a survey had been initiated to determine the exact number of the displaced families to provide humanitarian assistance to them.
Over three dozen fighters, mostly Taliban militants, according to local officials, have been killed for the control of Dasht-e-Qala district over the past one week.
Only over the past two days six civilians including women and children have been killed and about 20 others sustained injuries, a villager Sayed Mahmoud told Xinhua.
Majority of those families left their houses for safer places have reached the provincial capital Taluqan and the remaining have settled in the neighboring Yangi Qala and Khawj Ghar districts, the villager added.
Meanwhile, an army spokesman in the northern region, Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, said that the militants had been hidden in residential areas to use the civilians as human shield to escape the military operations.
Karimi also stated that the crackdown against militants launched about a week ago will continue until the restive Dasht-e-Qala district and adjoining areas are cleansed of them.
