By Xinhua,
Kabul : Afghan security forces in a clean up operation have killed 35 suspected insurgents in the southern province of Helmand, a newspaper reported Monday.
“Thirty five Taliban fighters have been killed in the clean up operation launched late last week,” the Outlook daily quoted army officer Muhiuddin Ghauri as saying.
During the operation backed by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), three Taliban commanders had also been killed.
Meanwhile, purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, speaking over the telephone from an undisclosed place, rejected the claim as “fictitious”.
Spiralling conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have claimed more than 5,000 people, mostly militants, so far this year despite the deployment of more than 70,000 international troops to restore peace and security to the strife-torn country.