KABUL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Up to 27 Taliban militants have been killed in operations carried out by Afghan army, police and the NATO-led coalition forces in different provinces within the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Sunday morning.
"A total of 11 other armed Taliban were wounded and nine militants were arrested during the seven cleanup operations launched by the joint by forces in Kunduz, Wardak, Nangarhar, Ghazni and Helmand provinces," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.
They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
In addition, a Taliban shadowy district governor named Mawlawe Jalal, along with seven of his men were killed in an airstrike carried out by the coalition forces in Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province overnight, a provincial government spokesman, Wasifullah Wasifi, told Xinhua Sunday morning.
Meantime, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban purported spokesman, told local media via cell phone that six Taliban were killed and eight others wounded in Kunar province early Sunday morning, without confirming the death of Jalal in the province 120 km east of Kabul.
In another development, Afghan police killed a Taliban leader and detaining five other militants during an on-going operation in Guzara district of western Herat province, deputy provincial police chief Zahir Tahibzada told Xinhua.
"The killed Taliban leader named Najib Azad, who killed Sunday morning, was responsible for several attacks and killing four police officers in Guzara district a couple of weeks ago," Tahibzada said, adding that no civilian and members of the police were injured in the raid in the province 640 km west of Kabul.
Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings.
A group of Taliban, who masked themselves in U.S. military uniform, launched a coordinated attack against a main coalition base -- Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, in the attack that left two U.S. Marines and 14 Taliban dead late on Friday.
Six NATO and coalition jests were destroyed, two were damaged while eight coalition service members and one civilian contractor were wounded in the attack in the province 555 km south of Kabul, according to a coalition statement issued here Sunday morning.
The attack came after Taliban's announcement of hunting down British Prince Harry, who arrived at Camp Bastion earlier this month, starting his four-month military service as an Apache helicopter pilot.
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