Roundup: 27 including 13 militants killed in Afghan conflicts

Conflicts have left 27 people including 13 militants and 14 police dead in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, officials said on Monday.

Afghan defense ministry, in a statement, reported killing 13 armed insurgents and injuring 12 others since Sunday morning.

According to the statement, nine militants have been killed in Dand-e-Ghori district of the northern Baghlan province, four in Dehrawad district of the southern Uruzgan province.

It said that 12 more militants have been injured and five others captured in the eastern Paktia province over the period.

Two people including a police were killed and 10 others including civilians sustained injuries as blast rocked Khiwa district in the eastern Nangarhar province on Monday, provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqwal said.

"A mine planted by militants on a road in Khiwa district went off at 11:30 a.m. local time today killing two persons including a local police and a villager and injured 10 others including some civilians," Mashriqwal told Xinhua.

Local police, mostly auxiliary police composed of villagers and serving in areas of the countryside where the presence of regular security forces is slim, have been in a hard bid to defend rural areas against anti-government militants.

Militant attack on security points in Taliban former stronghold the southern Uruzgan province claimed the lives of 12 police personnel on Sunday night, a local police officer said on Monday.

The official, who refused to be named, asserted that the clash between Taliban and security forces on the road linking Dehrawad district to Uruzgan's provincial capital Trinkot Sunday night killed 12 police personnel.

Taliban-led attacks, according to local observers, would take momentum in spring when the weather gets warm.

Spring and summer are known as the fighting season in Afghanistan. Enditem