Military operations
carried out by the Afghan police, army and the NATO-led coalition forces
have claimed the lives of 15 Taliban militants in different Afghan
provinces within the past 24 hours, authorities said Thursday.

"Afghan
National Police (ANP), Afghan army and intelligence agency in
collaboration with the coalition forces launched 13 joint cleanup
operations in Kapisa, Baghlan, Jowzjan, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan,
Wardak, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika and Helmand provinces over the past 24
hours," the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement issued here.

"As
a result of these operations, 15 armed Taliban were killed, four
wounded and 10 others were arrested by the ANP," the statement said,
adding that the joint forces also found and seized weapons and explosive
during the above raids.

The statement did not say whether there were any casualties on the side of security forces.

However,
the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual
spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not
made comments yet.

Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led
coalition troops have recently intensified cleanup operations against
Taliban and other militants throughout the country.

As the
militants are facing the ever-mounting pressure from the strikes
launched by security forces, they have changed their tactics by avoiding
direct conflicts with troops and shifting to attack on the so-called
"soft targets" such as civilian, government agency buildings and
infrastructure in a bid to force the government to stop the strikes
against them.

Up to 30 people including eight policemen were
killed and more than 30 others injured in two suicide bombings in
northern Kunduz and western Herat province on Monday and Tuesday.