KABUL (AFP) – Nearly 50 Taliban insurgents have been killed and about two dozen wounded in separate incidents across Afghanistan, while two Afghan soldiers have also been killed, officials said Wednesday.

In a joint operation on Tuesday, Afghan forces together with US-led troops killed 30 militants and wounded another 20 in Chora district, in the southern province of Uruzgan, the interior ministry said.

The operation was still ongoing Wednesday to clear the area of Taliban fighters, it said.

In a similar operation on Tuesday, an Afghan army commando unit together with US-led soldiers killed 11 Taliban militants in Ajristan district, Ghazni province, a defence ministry statement said.

Four Taliban fighters were arrested in the joint operation, it said, adding that a number of light machine-guns were also seized.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Zabul province, two Afghan soldiers were killed and six were wounded in operations in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said.

"Two soldiers were martyred and another four were wounded as their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Atghar district of Zabul," it said, adding that two soldiers were wounded in separate attacks in the province.

Another four militants were killed by their own explosives in Kandahar and Khost provinces, respectively in the south and southeast, the defence ministry said.

Two militants were killed as they were driving away after planting a roadside bomb, which struck their own motorbike.

Similarly two Taliban were killed when the mortar shells they were trying to fire on Khost city went off in the mortar launcher, killing them.