Three armed Taliban militants have been killed and nine other suspects arrested during nine cleanup operations launched by Afghan police, army and NATO-led coalition forces within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Monday.

"Three Taliban insurgents were killed and nine others detained during nine joint cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Nuristan, Helmand, Uruzgan, Logar, Ghazni, Khost and Herat provinces over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.

The joint forces also found and seized weapons besides defusing 39 Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and anti-vehicle mines, the statement added.

Separately, four militants placing IEDs along a road in eastern Khost province were killed overnight and one other injured after identified by security forces in the province 150 km southeast of capital city of Kabul, a police source in the province said Monday.

"The militants were planting IEDs to target security personnel but were killed by a NATO-led forces air strike in Borikhil area of Gurbuz district late Sunday night," provincial police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai told Xinhua, adding the injured man is captured by police.

In another development, a wanted leader of an irresponsible armed group was killed during a gunfight in the country's northern Takhar province earlier Monday.

"Based on intelligence, police laid an ambush to capture a wanted man named Abdul Mosawar heading a gang group in Farkhar district but during the operation gunshots erupted as a result Mosawar along a guard were killed and two policemen were injured at around 9 a.m. today," Abdul Khalil Asil, a police spokesman in the province, told Xinhua.

Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militant groups throughout the country recently. Over 490 Taliban and other anti-government insurgents have been killed and more than 1,120 others detained across the country so far this year, according to the figures released by Afghan Interior Ministry.

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