Afghan troops retake district from Taliban militants

Afghan security forces launched a major offensive on Tuesday and retook control of a remote western district from Taliban militants, the country's interior ministry said.

"Afghan security forces launched an operation on Tuesday morning and cleared the Jawand district of western Badghis province from enemies of peace and stability of Afghanistan," Xinhua news agency quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.

On Sunday morning, the Taliban militants captured Jawand district with Qala-e-Naw as its capital, 555 km northwest of Kabul, after heavy clashes with security forces.

Cleanup operations were underway in surrounding areas of the district, the statement said, without elaborating on the casualties among the security forces and the militants.

Taliban militants fighting the government to regain power launched their so-called annual spring offensive on April 24 and since then carried out a series of attacks against government interests in different provinces of Afghanistan which had claimed hundreds of lives including those of militants, security personnel and civilians.