The local officials of Kapisa province on Saturday confirmed the deaths of 15 Taliban insurgents, including a shadow district governor in a military operation carried out in the Nijrab district of the province. The officials added that 24 insurgents, three police officers, including an ANA soldier were injured in the operation that ended on Friday. However, no civilian casualties were reported.
"The operation, codenamed "Almas 11" (Diamond 11), was launched on Tuesday jointly by the Afghan National Army (ANA), Afghan National Police (ANP) and National Directorate of Security (NDS)," said Hamyoun Rashidi, the head of the Police Media office in Kapisa.
So far, no insurgents' group has commented about the operation and the number of casualties.
The Afghan security forces have ramped up operations across the country to clear vulnerable areas of insurgents in preparation for the upcoming 2014 elections.
There are over 350,000 Afghan soldiers fighting the insurgents across Afghanistan. Foreign troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, after handing over full security responsibility to the Afghan forces. Though, coalition officials maintain that nearly all operational oversight has been handed over to Afghans already.