15 militants killed in Afghanistan

KABUL - Up to 15 Taliban insurgents have been killed and 38 others detained in 12 cleanup operations carried out by the Afghan police, army and the NATO-led coalition force within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Wednesday morning.

"A total of eight other armed Taliban insurgents were wounded during the above raids launched in Kabul, Kunar, Nangarhar, Sari Pul, Jawzjan, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Logar, Paktia, Herat, Farah and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates to the media.

They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.

Separately, Afghan police found and defused three Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the country's southwestern province of Nimroz on Tuesday.

However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has 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 IED or roadside bombings especially in southern and eastern parts of the country.

Up to 25 people were killed and 63 others injured when a suicide bomber targeted a funeral ceremony in the eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday afternoon while three civilians were killed and three others injured in two separate IED blasts in southern Kandahar province in the same day.