Afghanistan, Kabul, 8 September / Trend corr. A.Hakimi / Afghan police on Sunday morning backed by the U.S.-led Coalition forces in a clean-up operation in province of Khost eliminated 15 Taliban militants and arrested two others, said a police official.
Abudul Qayum Bakizai, the deputy provincial police chief, told the media that the combined forces engaged with Taliban militants in Sabari district of Khost province early Sunday morning
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"Fifteen militants were killed and two others were arrested on the spot," Bakizai said, adding "twenty rifles were also seized by the joint forces during the operation."
However, Taliban militants fighting Afghan government have yet to make any comment.
Taliban insurgents who staged a violent comeback three years ago have intensified their activities targeting Afghan and international troops across Afghanistan to mount pressure on the government despite around 70,000 foreign troops stationed in the country.
Two suicide bombings targeted police headquarters in province of Kandahar Sunday afternoon killed two policemen and wounded 38 others, spokesman of provincial administration Najib Pervez said.
"The suicide bombings claimed the lives of two policemen and wounded 38 others, including one female police and eight civilians," Pervez told Afghan Voice Agency (AVA).
He also said the one of the suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the building while the second one in a span of one minute detonated himself at the second floor, inflicting damage and casualties.
Earlier, Matiwullah Khan, the provincial police chief, told AVA that 29 people including five civilians were wounded in the twin blasts and he also put the death toll to two, both police.
The Afghan police and Canadian troops based in Kandahar immediately cordoned off the area and begun investigation.
A doctor in Kandahar city Mohammad Hashim told AVA that so far a few dead bodies and 19 injured men had been taken to Mirwais Hospital.
But he failed to give the exact number of the dead bodies shifted to hospital.
Meanwhile, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, the purported Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying two local Taliban fighters had carried out those attacks.
Taliban outfits, whose loyalists raided Kandahar jail in June 2008 and secured the release of more than 1,000 inmates including some 400 insurgents, often carried out such attacks against government interests despite some 70,000 international troops have been deployed in Afghanistan.
Conflicts and spiraling insurgency have claimed the lives of more than 3,700 people, mostly militants, so far this year in the war-torn nation.