37 insurgents killed, 22 arrested in Afghanistan

Security forces have eliminated 37 insurgents and captured 22 others in different parts of the country over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Sunday. "Over the past 24 hours, the Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan National Army (ANA), NDS or the intelligence agency and NATO-led Coalition forces have launched 12 joint and independent operations in Kabul, Laghman, Kandahar, Helmand, Wardak, Paktika, Pakiya and Khost provinces, killing 37 armed insurgents and detaining 22 other suspected insurgents," the ministry said in a statement. A handful of weapons and ammunition were also found and seized by joint forces, it said. Afghan officials often use the word "insurgents" referring to the Taliban. The insurgent group, who stepped up their attacks on Afghan troops and about 130,000 NATO-led Coalition troops stationed in the country since a spring rebel offensive was launched in May this year in the country, has yet to make comments. Separately, a NATO soldier was killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed in a statement on Sunday. However, the brief statement did not release the nationality of the victim under ISAF policy. Over 460 NATO service members, with a majority of them Americans, lost their lives in Afghanistan since the beginning of this year.