Up to 20 Taliban insurgents have been killed in operations carried out by Afghan forces and NATO- led coalition troops within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Thursday morning.
"Afghan National Police (ANP), army and Coalition Forces launched 13 cleanup operations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Uruzgan, Logar, Paktia and Farah provinces, killing 20 armed Taliban insurgents over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates to media.
They also found and seized weapons besides detaining five other suspects, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of a spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan-NATO forces, has not made comments yet.
The Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have recently intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country but the insurgents in retaliation responded by suicide attacks and roadside bombings especially in southern and eastern parts of the country.
A total of 20 people including 15 civilians, two policemen and three U.S. soldiers with the coalition were killed and 37 other injured when a Taliban suicide bomber targeted a joint convoy of forces in Khost city, the provincial capital of eastern Khost province on Wednesday.