KABUL, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to 13 Taliban militants have been killed and 13 others detained in eight operations carried out by the Afghan police, army and the NATO-led troops over the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Monday morning.
"The cleanup operations were launched in Takhar, Kunduz, Kandahar, Logar, Ghazni, Khost, Farah and Helmand provinces and the joint forces also found and seized weapons and explosives during the above raids," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement did not say if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.
However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not to make comments yet.
Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings especially in southern and eastern parts of the country.
A total of five Afghan border policemen were killed and six others injured in a roadside bombing in eastern Nuristan province on Sunday morning.
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