Afghan police kill 28 militants within 24 hours

The Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs on Sunday said that the police forces, backed by the army and the NATO-led coalition forces, have eliminated 28 Taliban militants in different provinces within the past 24 hours. \"Afghan National Police (ANP) in collaboration with the army and coalition forces launched 17 cleanup operations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kapisa, Kunduz, Faryab, Wardak, Ghazni and Paktika provinces, killing 28 armed Taliban militants over the past 24 hours,\" the ministry said in a statement. The ANP also detained 13 suspected militants besides seizing weapons and ammunition in the above raids, the statement added, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces. The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to confirm the death of their men. The security forces have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country recently but the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out bombings and laying out ambushes against them. On Saturday, two U.S. soldiers with the coalition were killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition confirmed in a statement