KABUL, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants in fighting against government forces have suffered casualties in the northern region as over three dozen of the group's fighters were killed in Kunduz and Faryab provinces, officials said Sunday.
The government forces, in fresh crackdown on the Taliban outfit, launched massive operations against the positions of the armed group in Dasht-e-Archi district of Kunduz province in the wee hours of Sunday, and so far 30 insurgents had been killed and 20 others injured, district governor Nasrudin Nazari said.
Backed by fighting aircrafts, the operations, according to Nazari, had led to recapture of several villages and would last until the district is cleansed of the armed militants.
Taliban militants haven't commented on the reports.
The government forces also targeted Taliban positions in Sar-e-Hawz area of Pasthtonkot district in Faryab province late Saturday night, killing eight fighters including a local commander and wounding 10 others, an army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said.
Nevertheless, the Taliban outfit, in counter-offensive, stormed a security checkpoint in Shinkai district of the southern Zabul province early on Sunday, killing one police personnel and taking away 10 more policemen to an unknown location, provincial police chief Mohammad Mustafa Mayar said.
Both sides have stepped up activities to gain more ground ahead of snowfall in the mountainous country and the Afghan government has issued order to security forces recently to increase pressure on the armed opposition groups.
