GARDEZ, Afghanistan, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Three security force members and two Taliban militants were killed and nine people were wounded following a gunfight in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia overnight, local police said Sunday.
"The clash started after armed militants stormed security checkpoints in Zurmat district, south of provincial capital. And those among the injured were five security forces and four militants," provincial police spokesman, Sardar Wali Tabasum, told Xinhua.
Several security checkpoints were also damaged by the clashes, he said.
Fighting rages in across the country since Friday when the militant group launched a yearly rebel offensive.
The Taliban frequently starts the yearly offensive in Spring as the season is locally branded as the fighting time of the year.
In Nawa district of neighboring Ghazni province, two Taliban militants were killed and a hijacked military vehicle and 10 landmines were destroyed after Afghan Special Operations Forces launched an operation against a Taliban hideout overnight, according to Special Forces command.
In an unrelated incident, one policeman was killed after he tried to defuse a landmine in Arghandab district of southern Kandahar province earlier in the day.
