51 militants killed in clashes across Afghanistan

At least 51 Taliban militants have been killed in fresh military operations across Afghanistan since Saturday, the country's interior ministry said Sunday.

"Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) carried out cleanup operations in Kandahar, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni and Helmand provinces over the past 24 hours. As a result, 51 armed Taliban members were killed, 32 wounded and five others were arrested by the ANSF," Xinhua quoted a ministry statement as saying.

The security forces also confiscated light and heavy rounds ammunition, the statement said. However, the casualties on the side of security forces are not known.

Furthermore, the Afghan police detained four armed militants in northern Kunduz province after they tried to attack a security checkpoint, a provincial police spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Taliban, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, in its counter-claim rejected the ministry's statement.

Afghan security forces took the full operational lead from NATO-led troops in June last year.

The war-torn country is due to take over the responsibility for its own security from foreign troops by the end of 2014.

More than 41,000-strong NATO-led foreign troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are currently deployed in Afghanistan.