KABUL: Almost 100 Taliban linked rebels were taken out of action killed, captured or wounded in one day of operations by Afghan forces helped by their NATO allies, Afghan authorities said Sunday.
The casualties were inflicted in multiple operations across the troubled country at the weekend, said the interior ministry, which controls the police and leads anti-Taliban forces along with the defence ministry.
The operations, mostly in the Taliban-infested south and east, came as the Islamist Taliban militants increased attacks as part of their annual spring offensive, which heralds what is called the "fighting season".
"As the season changes we will have more fighting than in winter," Defence Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi warned last week.
Violence picks up in the warmer spring and summer months as snow melts in mountainous passages along the Pakistan border where Afghan authorities and NATO forces say most Taliban leaders are hiding.
A Taliban-style roadside bombing killed a senior police commander and two of his colleagues in Kapisa, north of capital Kabul on Sunday, the interior ministry said.
The rebels were taken out of action in 11 operations, including one in the capital Kabul, with a total of 47 killed, 31 wounded and 21 captured, the ministry said in a statement, without giving further details.
Interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Afghan security forces had escalated their operations, targeting insurgent leaders in recent weeks.
Since the start of the Afghan solar-based new year on March 20, 47 Taliban "group commanders" and mid-level commanders" were killed.
Another 155, most of them Taliban mid-level leaders had been captured, Sediqqi said, describing the operations as "very successful".
NATO has about 130,000 troops supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai against the Taliban insurgency, but they will pull out by the end of 2014, handing control of security to Afghan forces.
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