6 insurgents killed in eastern Afghan operations

Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops have killed six militants in operations launched in eastern Afghan provinces with a 24-hour period, the NATO-led coalition forces said on Wednesday. "Afghan and coalition forces killed six insurgents, detained five, located a weapons cache and cleared eight improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during operations in eastern Afghanistan throughout the past 24 hours," the coalition's Regional Command- East (RC-E) said in a statement. The operations were launched in eastern Ghazni, Logar, Paktika and the neighbouring Khost provinces, it said. Operations in RC-East are still ongoing, it said. Taliban militants, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have often attacked Afghan and about 100,000 NATO- led forces with IEDs and roadside bombs but the lethal weapons also inflict casualties on civilians. At least, three civilians and a policeman were killed and five other people were wounded in separate IED attacks across the country on Tuesday.