Twenty-four militants killed in operations by Afghan army troops
Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry has announced the killing of 24 suspected Taliban militants across the war-torn country in a series operations by the Afghan army and security forces.
"A total of 24 armed insurgents have been killed during police operations backed by the army and National Directorate for Security over the past 24 hours," said the ministry in a Saturday statement, Xinhua news agency reported.
According to the statement, the operations were carried out in Kunar, Oruzgan and Helmand provinces, during which five more militants sustained injuries and one of them was captured.
The Taliban militants, however, refuted the Interior Ministry's account, claiming that the armed insurgents had inflicted major losses on government troops over the period.
The militants further claimed in an online statement that they destroyed an armored vehicle in the Miwand district of the southern Kandahar province on Saturday and killed a number of security officers.
Additionally, the Taliban asserted its forces overran a police checkpoint in the Sistani area of the Marja district in Helmand province late on Friday, killing five police officers, a claim dismissed by Afghan authorities as a propaganda bid.
The Taliban has also rejected the appeal of Afghanistan’s government for a truce during the fasting month of Ramadan, vowing to further intensify their insurgency campaign, according to the report.
Afghanistan was invaded by the US and its allies in 2001 under the pretext of Washington’s anti-terror campaign. The invasion removed Taliban militants from power, but insecurity, instability and violence still plague the country.
A recent study indicates that nearly 100,000 people have been killed and thousands more injured in Afghanistan since the military invasion.
Although the US military campaign in Afghanistan officially terminated in December 2014, there still remain over 13,500 foreign forces, mainly from the US, in the violence-wracked country.
MFB/NT
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