u00a0"Afghan police backed by the army and the NATO-led coalition forces carried out several cleanup operations in Uruzgan, Kandahar, Ghazni, Kunar and Herat provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 22 armed Taliban insurgents," Xinhua quoted an interior ministry statement as saying.

Afghanistan's intelligence agency National Directorate for Security (NDS) said 16 terrorists were arrested since Saturday. While 13 terrorists were arrested in Zabul province, three others were arrested in Paktika province.