KABUL, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Up to 21 Taliban militants have been killed in operations carried out by the Afghan police within the past 24 hours, authorities said Tuesday.
"Afghan National Police (ANP) backed by the Afghan army and the NATO-led coalition forces launched seven cleanup operations in Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Wardak, Logar, Paktika and Nimroz provinces, killing 14 armed Taliban militants over the past hours, " the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.
One militant was wounded and 12 other suspected militants were detained by the ANP during the above raids, the statement added.
In addition, a total of seven Taliban were killed and three others detained in an operation carried out by the ANP in southern Helmand province overnight, a provincial police spokesman said Tuesday.
"Seven militants, including a key Taliban commander named Mullah Bashir, had been killed and five Taliban hideouts were destroyed in an on-going operation launched by police in Populzai and Balochano area of Nahri Sarraj district up to now as we know," spokesman Farid Ahmad Aayl told Xinhua.
He said the police has also found and defused 52 roadside bombs and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the operation in the province 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul.
The Taliban insurgent group fighting Afghan and NATO-led forces has yet to make comments.
The 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 total of 12 people including eight foreigners working for a local company were killed and two people injured in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul earlier Tuesday morning.
The nationalities of the killed foreigners were not clear at the moment in the attack claimed by the Hezb-e-Islami, the second largest insurgent group in insurgency-hit country.
|
