KABUL, July 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 53 militants have been killed over the past 24 hours as Afghan government forces have intensified operations, security officials said Thursday.
In one crackdown on militants, government forces struck Taliban hideouts in Jalalabad area of Argo district in northern Badakhshan province early on Thursday and the firefight lasted until the security forces recaptured the area and forcing militants to flee after leaving five bodies behind and injuring 11 others, provincial administration spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari said.
According to Nazari, no security personnel had been hurt.
Separately, government forces, according to Jilani Farhad, the spokesman for western Herat provincial government, launched operations against Taliban hideouts in Obe district of the province on Wednesday and so far 15 insurgents had been killed and 10 others injured.
Government forces have also killed nine militants and injured four others in Bilchiragh district of the northern Faryab province over the past 24 hours, provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yurash said.
A total of 17 militants have been killed in the southern Kandahar and seven more killed in the neighboring Helmand province since Wednesday, officials said Thursday.
However, Zabihullah Majahid who claims to speak for the Taliban outfit in contact with media, rebuffed the claims made by the officials, and in counter-claim asserted that the militants had killed dozens of security personnel over the past two days.
