KABUL, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Afghan government forces' ongoing operations against armed militants have killed 13 Taliban fighters in the eastern Laghman and Ghazni provinces over the past 24 hours amid spiraling insurgency in the country, officials said Tuesday.
The government forces in crackdown against armed militants have pounded Taliban hideouts in Alishing district of the Laghman province from ground and air over the past 24 hours, killing seven militants and injuring eight others, an army statement released Tuesday said.
Several villages have also been recaptured in the said district, the statement asserted.
Keeping pressure on the militants, the government forces have killed six Taliban fighters and injured 10 others in Muqar district of the Ghazni province since Monday, Afghan army said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the operations against militants would continue until the area is cleansed of the insurgents.
Amid mounting military pressure on the militants, a motor bomb targeted Green Village camp in the eastern edge of Kabul city on Monday evening, killing at least four people and injuring more than 110 others with majority of them civilians including women and children.
The armed Taliban outfit has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing that was heard across Kabul and caused panic among Kabul residents.
In a statement posted on Taliban website on Tuesday, the group's spokesman Zabihullah Majahid said that the militants targeted "Green Village, a spy center of foreigners," killing dozens of foreigners and their Afghan associates.
Green Village camp is a well-protected area next to the main office of Afghan election commission in the eastern edge of Kabul city where a number of foreign security offices and entities are located and they were often frequented by foreigners living or working in Kabul.
However, the Taliban claim was rebuffed by Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish. Danish said that majority of the victims are civilians including 23 children and 12 women.
"The blast was so strong that I felt a big bomb hit Kabul city and since then I am feeling a kind of shock and uncertainty about having peace in our country," a terrified Kabul resident, Mohammad Azim, 49, told Xinhua.
