KUNDUZ CITY (PAN): Eight Taliban insurgents and two Afghan security personnel were killed and more than a dozen more militants and four security men were wounded during last 24 hours of an operation in the northern Kunduz province, officials said on Thursday.

Police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Razaq Yaqubi told Pajhwok Afghan News the joint operation involving Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and national police was conducted in Dasht-i-Archi district.

A spokesman for the Taliban claimed their fighters ambushed a convoy of the joint forces, killing 35 security personnel in the district.

Mujahid said the fighters also destroyed three military vehicles.

But the police chief rejected his claims. Yaqubi said the operation would continue until complete removal of the Taliban from the area.

The offensive came after militants killed Dasht-i-Archi district police chief Col. Noor Khan and the brother of Kunduz governor Eng. Muhammad Omar in an attack late Tuesday night, said Yaqubi, who added three policemen were also killed in the militant attack.

A spokesman for the Paktika governor Hamidullah Zhwak, meanwhile, said four militants trying to plant roadside bombs were killed in an air-strike by the US-led coalition forces in Wazikhwa district of the province late Wednesday evening.

The ministry of defence in a statement issued in Kabul said two militants were eliminated in the central Uruzgan province and as many were captured alive in the southern Helmand province, the hotbed of Taliban insurgents.

Taliban insurgents yet to make any comments regarding the operation and arrest of their fighters.

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