KABUL, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Some 42 militants were killed and seven others wounded amid military operations carried out by Afghan security forces within the last 24 hours, the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday.
"Afghan army, police and intelligence agency personnel conducted military and cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Laghman, Paktika, Ghazni, Wardak, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Ghor, Herat, Faryab, Kunduz, Badakhshan and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 42 insurgents and injuring seven others," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry mentioned that the joint forces also destroyed one vehicle and nine motorcycles of insurgents in addition to dismantling several Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and landmines.
The Afghan security forces have stepped up security operations against militants recently as the Taliban and other militants have been attempting to take territory and consolidate their positions ahead of winter in the mountainous country.
Earlier on Monday, one intelligence agency man was injured in a Taliban bomb attack in northern Takhar province while two persons were wounded after a bomb struck a vehicle in the national capital of Kabul.
The Taliban group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has yet to make comments.
