87 insurgents killed in operations in Afghanistan

About 87 Taliban insurgents have been killed in operations in different Afghan provinces, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Saturday. "Afghan police and army, backed by the NATO-led coalition forces, carried out 11 military operations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Logar, Ghazni, Paktia and Nimroz provinces, killing 87 armed Taliban insurgents within the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement. Eight other suspects were detained, the statement added. They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces. The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments. Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings. At least six civilians were killed and six others injured when two Taliban suicide bombers targeted the entrance of a joint Afghan-NATO force base in Sayyidabad district of eastern Wardak province earlier Saturday.