One of high-ranking leaders of the Taliban movement who was deputy shadow governor for Afghan Kunduz Province, Asadulla, and 14 militants, with eight of them being nationals of Tajikistan, have been killed in a special operation carried out by Afghan security forces in northeastern Afghanistan, said Dawlat Vaziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, according to Russian Interfax news agency.

The operation has reportedly been carried out in the Dashti Archi district bordering Tajikistan.