Kabul, Oct 14 (IANS) Militancy and counter-terrorism operations in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan have over the past 24 hours claimed 44 lives with a majority of them Taliban fighters, officials said Monday.
In the latest violent attack against security forces, four policemen were killed when a roadside bomb planted by anti-government militants struck a police van in southern province of Kandahar, according to an official source.
District Governor Mahmoud Achakzai blamed Taliban militants for organising the deadly bombing. However, the Taliban outfit which is largely relying on suicide and roadside bombings is yet to claim responsibility, reports Xinhua.
Earlier, the Afghanistan interior ministry in a statement released here Monday morning reported killing 40 armed Taliban fighters across the country in counter-terrorism operations during the past 24 hours.
The operations covered Baghlan, Wardak, Logar, Kandahar, Ghazni, Nangarhar and Saripul provinces, during which 25 more militants sustained injuries and 13 others were made captive, Xinhua cited the country’s interior ministry as saying in a statement.
The statement did not mention any possible casualties sustained by the security personnel during the operations.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, Taliban leader whose supporters have been fighting the Afghan government and NATO-led forces, has meanwhile reiterated his determination to continue war till the eviction of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
“The invaders and their allies should understand that inking strategic agreement with US would be accompanied by dire consequences,” Taliban’s leader Mullah Mohammad Omar warned in his message posted on the outfit’s website on the eve of Eid-ul-Adha.
He made the remarks in the wake of narrowing differences between Kabul and Washington over signing security pact which was announced by President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State John Kerry Saturday in Kabul.