Afghan security forces kill 40 militants within day

KABUL (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces have killed 40 militants in the latest operations, said the country's Interior Ministry on Saturday.

"Afghan army, police and personnel of intelligence agency carried out cleanup operations in Kunar, Kapisa, Faryab, Laghman, Helmand and Paktia provinces in the past 24 hours, killing 40 armed Taliban militants, wounding 10 and detaining one another," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates.

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

The security forces also defused 22 roadside bombs and landmines recently planted by the militants over the same period, according to the statement.

Furthermore, four Taliban militants were killed and 16 others were detained following a military operation in Chardara district of northern Kunduz province overnight, the district governor Zulmai Farooqi told Xinhua earlier on Saturday.

The Taliban responded by bombing and armed attacks.

Earlier on Saturday, a senior defense ministry's official was seriously wounded in a gun firing in western part of Kabul, Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said in his twitter account, adding the wounded officer was under intense medical treatment in a Kabul military hospital.

The Taliban has yet to make comments.