37 insurgents killed in operations in Afghanistan: gov't

Kabul, June 27 (Xinhua-ANI): Afghan police and army, backed by NATO-led coalition forces, have killed 37 Taliban insurgents during operations in different provinces within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said on Wednesday morning.

"The joint forces carried out 12 cleanup operations in Kabul, Laghman, Parwan, Kunduz, Sari Pul, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Uruzgan and Farah provinces, killing 37 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining three other suspects over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement.

Up to 14 other insurgents were injured in the raids, the statement added.

The joint forces also found and seized weapons during the operations, 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 and NATO forces, has not to make comments yet.

The Afghan army and police and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militant groups throughout the country recently as spring and summer, known as "fighting season", draw near.

More than 1,280 insurgents have been killed and more than 1,860 others detained in the country so far this year, according to the figures released by the Afghan Interior Ministry. (Xinhua-ANI)