KABUL, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Nearly two dozen anti-government insurgents have been killed over the past 24 hours as the government forces have increased military pressure in the insurgency-plagued country, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The security forces, according to the statement, have conducted five well-coordinated operations in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces over the past 24 hours, killing 23 militants and injuring four others.
During the crackdowns backed by fighting aircraft, a mine making factory, the militants' hideouts and several weapon caches of the militants have also been destroyed, the statement contended.
Several villages have also been recaptured over the period. The statement however, didn't mention the possible casualties of security forces.
Taliban fighters didn't comment either.
Similarly, government forces raided a hideout of the Islamic State (IS) outfit in Surkhrod district of the eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday night and arrested four suspected militants affiliated with the hardliner group operating in the eastern region of the war-battered country, said a statement from the Nangarhar provincial government released Friday.
