61 militants killed in Afghanistan

A total of 61 Taliban militants have been killed in military operations carried out by Afghan forces and NATO-led coalition troops in the last 24 hours, said Afghanistan's interior ministry Wednesday morning.

"Afghan police, army, intelligence agency and the coalition forces launched five joint clean-up operations in Baghlan, Jawzjan, Paktika, Kandahar and Farah provinces, killing 61 armed Taliban insurgents over the past 24 hours," Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.

The Afghan police also discovered and confiscated 115 kg of opium, 11 different types of weapons with 28 magazines, three radio handsets, two suicide vests, 376 rounds of bullets and 27 hand grenades in the operations, it added.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified clean-up operations against insurgents in Afghanistan in the recent months.