5 soldiers killed in Afghanistan

At least five Afghan national army (ANA) service members were killed in the past 24 hours, defense officials said Tuesday. Gen. Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the ministry of defense of Afghanistan, said the Afghan soldiers were killed following improvised explosive device (IED) explosion, the Afghan (Khaama Press) reported. There has been a spike rise in Afghan national security forces casualties after taking lead in security responsibilities from the NATO-led coalition forces. According to the defense officials, Afghan army casualties in 1392 were 3.8 percent daily on average basis which is mainly caused due to improvised explosive device (IED) attacks. In the meantime, Azimi said at least 14 militants were killed during military operations in Maidan Wardak, Paktia and Helmand provinces of Afghanistan. He said Afghan army soldiers also confiscated weapons, ammunition and explosives during the operations along with eight motorcycles.