12 militants killed in Afghan police operations within day

One dozen Taliban militants had been killed in a series of cleanup operations in the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Sunday. "Afghan National Police (ANP) conducted several clearance operations with the cooperation of the army, National Directorate for Security (NDS) and the NATO-led coalition forces in Kunar, Nangarhar, Kandahar, Wardak, Farah, Helmand and Nimroz provinces over the past 24 hours. As a result 12 armed Taliban were killed, 10 wounded and seven others were arrested," it said in a statement. The ANP also seized weapons and defused several improvised bombs, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the security forces side. The Taliban has yet to make comments. The security forces have intensified operations against Taliban and other militant groups recently. But the insurgent responded by bombings and armed attacks. Earlier on Sunday, six civil-order policemen were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of the northern Baghlan province, 160 km north of Kabul. District police chief Sayyed Mir Ahmadzai told Xinhua two of the injured were in critical condition.