KABUL - Ministry of Interior says Taliban has suffered heavy losses in Afghan forces operations in the past three months. 
According to the ministry, Baghlan, Jawzjan, Faryab, Helmand, Farah and Kunduz provinces are among the areas where Taliban has a high presence and Afghan forces have been engaged in deadly battles with the militant group in parts of the provinces.
“Afghan security forces have killed three popular Taliban’s designated governors for Helmand, Ghor and Paktika. The ANDSF have also killed 20 Taliban commanders together with 11 others commanders who were belonged to the red unit of the Taliban,” the MoI spokesman Najib Danish said.
“The Afghan forces have killed more than 2,000 insurgents in various provinces over the past three months and this is a significant achievement for the Ministry of Interior,” Danish said.
Taliban in a statement rejected the claims that heavy casualties had been inflicted to members of group’s so-called red unit.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense spokesman Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed told TOLOnews that security forces have achieved significant progress in those provinces where the level of threats have been large, including in Farah province.
In last few weeks, Farah province has been the center of high profile visits including a visit by the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan Gen. Scott Miller.
“At least six Taliban commanders who were operating in various fields and known as Mullah Mohammad also known as Musafir, Nabi Jan known as Fedayee, Mullah Bakhtyar known as Niazi, Mullah Mohammad Omar known as Zarqani, Hafiz Fazel Ahmad and Hafiz Naseer were killed,” said Jawed.
This comes as violence continues to grip various regions of Afghanistan with the arrival of cold weather in the country.
Both the Afghan security forces and the Taliban militants have claimed to have had inflicted massive casualties to their opponents in the battles.
This new development takes place at a time that efforts both domestically and internationally have been increased to bring the Taliban to the peace negotiation table in order to end the 17-year conflict in the country. (Tolo news)