Afghan security forces kill over 70 rebels during operations

Around eighty insurgents and eleven Afghan National Army (ANA) personnel were killed during operations in several provinces, claimed Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Monday.
According to the MoD, 68 rebels were killed in Andar and Waghaz districts of southern Ghazni province and over 20 insurgents were killed in Badakhshan and Kunar provinces. It confirmed that 11 ANA soldiers were also killed due to IEDs blast and attacks in the operations against the insurgents.
ANA personnel conducted security operations in the last 24 hours in various areas of Khost, Ghazni, Urozgan, Sar-e-pul and Farah provinces recovering a huge amount of arms and ammunition, the MoD said.
The statement from the MoD came days after White House in a statement said that United States will maintain its current 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through the end of 2015.
Earlier on Sunday, at least three people were killed and eight others, including a lawmaker, wounded in a suicide bomb blast in the 8th police district of the Afghan capital Kabul.