52 Taliban insurgents killed in Afghan operations

Up to 52 Taliban insurgents have been killed and 45 wounded in cleanup operations in different Afghan provinces within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday morning."Afghan National Police (ANP) in partnership with army and the NATO-led coalition forces conducted several cleanup operations in Logar, Ghazni, Zabul, Kandahar, Kunduz, Kapisa, Paktika, Paktiya, Helmand and Nimroz provinces over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement providing daily operational updates."As a result 52 armed Taliban were killed, 45 wounded and 21 other armed Taliban were arrested," the statement said.The ANP also seized weapons and defused several bombs, the statement said without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has yet to make comments.The security forces have recently intensified operations against Taliban and other militant groups. But the insurgent responded by bombings.On Tuesday, five ANP cops were killed and five others wounded when Taliban carried out a coordinated attack on a police station in eastern Jalalabad city, in a raid which also claimed the lives of eight attackers.