At least 31 suspected insurgents, including Islamic State militants, were killed over the past 24 hours in ground and air strikes launched by the Afghan Army in different parts of the country, the Defense Ministry said on March 6.
Seventeen suspected militants were wounded and two were arrested, the ministry said in a statement. At least 13 air strikes were carried out across the country to target suspected insurgent hideouts and weapons caches, the statement said.
Operations were conducted in Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Ghazni, Paktika, Kandahar, Zabul, Farah, Badghis, Kunduz, Takhar, Faryab, Nimroz, and Helmand provinces.
Separately, at least two people were killed March 6 when a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded in eastern Nangarhar Province, a local official said.
Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, says the explosion also wounded three people.
He says it took place in the province's Behsud district, along a main highway between the provincial capital of Jalalabad and the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but both the Taliban and IS militants are active in the province and have stepped up their attacks against Afghan security forces.