21 killed and 5 wounded in Afghanistan

Up to 21 Taliban militants have been killed and 21 others arrested in one-day military operations across Afghanistan, said the country’s Ministry of Interior Affairs on Monday morning. “Afghan National Police (ANP) in partnership with army and the NATO-led coalition forces conducted nine cleanup operations in nine provinces, killing 21 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 21 other armed suspects over the last 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates. Five other insurgents were wounded in the above raids, it noted. The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has yet to make comments. The Afghan security forces supporting by nearly 100,000 NATO- led coalition troops have intensified operations against Taliban and other militant groups recently. But the insurgent groups responded by armed attacks and bombings. On Sunday evening, two militants were killed and four others wounded when militants raided a police checkpoint in the country’s northern province of Jawzjan, the provincial police chief Abdul Aziz Ghirat told Xinhua on Monday, adding no ANP service member was harmed in the attack.