Asia

Home page

Asia

Security forces kill 16 Taliban militants: Afghan officials

11 September 2012 17:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Afghanistanâ€™s Interior Ministry says that security forces have killed at least 16 Taliban militants across the war-torn country, APA reports quoting Press TV.

"During the past 24 hours, Afghan National Police, Afghan army and intelligence agency and the NATO-led coalition carried out five joint clearance operations in Laghman, Ghazni, Herat and Helmand provinces, killing 16 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 16 others," the ministry said in a statement early Tuesday.

According to the statement, security forces also seized weapons.

Meanwhile, Taliban militants say over the past 24 hours, tens of Afghan and foreign forces have been killed as well.

Five Afghan policemen were also killed in a bomb explosion on Tuesday in Herat.

Late Monday, four Afghan intelligence personnel were killed in a Taliban attack against the US-run Bagram Airbase in Afghanistanâ€™s Parwan Province near the Afghan capital Kabul.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of combating terrorism following the September 11 attacks in New York City.

The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but years into the invasion, insecurity continues to rise across the country despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops in the war-weary nation.

The US-led war in Afghanistan, which has caused record-high civilian and military casualties, has become the longest military conflict in the American history.