Four militants were killed in southern Afghan province Helmand and five rebels died in eastern Afghanistan during joint operations of Afghan security personnel and the U.S.-led Coalition forces, the interior ministry said Sunday.
A combined force of Afghan National Police (ANP) and the Coalition Friday night killed "four enemies" and discovered one satellite phone, one car and some weapons in Musa Qala, a known district for active insurgency in Helmand, the ministry said in a statement.
Furthermore, a large cache of weapons and even 20 suits of ANP and Afghan National Army (ANA) uniform were discovered from hideouts of suspected militants in Nahrisarraj, another district of Helmand, during a joint operation of ANP, ANA and Afghan intelligence service on Friday, it said, adding that one suspect was arrested.
Helmand, said to produce around 80 percent of Afghan poppy, is a major counter-insurgency battlefield for Afghan and foreign troops, who continued to launch joint search and clear-up operations in the region.
In another statement, the interior ministry said ANP, ANA and the Coalition Saturday killed five militants, injured one and arrested two others in Zurmat district of eastern province Paktia.
Six years on from Taliban regime collapse, Afghanistan, especially its remote southern and eastern regions, are still ravaged by active insurgency. Taliban-led militants, though weakened in capability to confront Afghan and foreign troops directly, have taken a guerrilla-style strategy, using more roadside bombing and suicide blast attacks.
A nearly 70,000-strong international troops under the flags of the U.N. authorized NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and a separate U.S.-led Coalition forces respectively are deployed across Afghanistan, with security mission.
Escalating Afghan fighting and violence left 8,000 people, mostly insurgents, dead in the war-torn country last year, according to the U.N..
Source:Xinhua
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