Kabul, October 9 (RHC)-- Afghan army troops have killed more than 170 Taliban militants and wounded tens of others in a series of mop-up operations conducted across the war-torn country over the past 24 hours.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday that 175 militants were killed and 82 others injured in a series of operations carried out in the provinces of Daykundi, Ghazni, Helmand, Herat, Kandahar, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Paktia, Paktika , Takhar, Uruzgan and Zabul.

The statement added that five Afghan soldiers lost their lives during the offensives.  Afghan soldiers also confiscated light and heavy weapons and defused several rounds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen Taliban militants have been killed when members of the terrorist group carried out separate attacks on a number of security checkpoints in Afghanistan’s western province of Herat.

Colonel Ghulam Sakhi Hussaini, the police chief for Pashtun Zarghun district in the province, said more than 80 Taliban militants launched coordinated offensives on police posts in Dasht-e-Nizan area of the district early on Friday, triggering gun battles.