Over 3 dozens including 2 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, March 22 (Xinhua) -- More than three dozens including two U.S. forces have been killed in Afghanistan in recent clashes, officials said Friday.

The government forces, according to Ghulam Hazrat Karimi, an army spokesman in the northern Kunduz province, launched operations against Taliban hideouts in Talawka locality outside Kunduz city the capital of the restive province early Friday and so far up to 20 insurgents have been killed and over a dozen others injured.

The official, however, refrained from informing on the casualties of security personnel, saying the operations would last until the area is cleansed of the insurgents.

A villager on condition of anonymity said that six civilians had been killed in the firefight. Rejecting the claim, Karimi asserted all those killed in the operations were militants.

According to locals, five Afghan security personnel have been killed and five others injured in the ongoing fighting there around Talawka area.

Taliban militants who have increased activities are yet to make comment on the situation.

The villager also claimed that two U.S. service members were also killed and two others injured during the operations launched by Afghan forces in Talwaka locality.

Earlier in the day, the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission in a brief statement released here without providing more details confirmed, "Two U.S. service members were killed while conducting an operation March 22."

Fighting between government forces and the Taliban fighters have claimed the lives of four militants in northern Faryab, six more insurgents in Samangan and two more Taliban fighters in Lalpur district of the eastern Nangarhar province respectively since Thursday, officials said.

Fighting in Afghanistan often gets momentum with the herald of spring which is locally branded as the fighting season.