KABUL. Aug 4 (Interfax) - Afghan government forces have killed 274 members of the Taliban (banned in Russia) and wounded another 119 over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
The most active fighting has taken place in the Nangarhar, Logar, Kandahar, Farah, Herat, Jowzjan, Balkh, Samangan, Faryab, Sar-e Pol, Helmand, Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Kapisa, and Kabul provinces, the Defense Ministry said.
The Taliban sustained the heaviest losses in the city of Lashkargah, the center of the Helmand province, where government forces and militias supported by warplanes managed to kill 75 Taliban members and wound 17 more, the ministry said.
Fierce fighting is currently underway in Lashkargah for control over the police headquarters and other government offices.
European non-governmental humanitarian organizations have reported that dozens of civilians have been killed and hundreds others injured over the past two days.
In addition, 40 Taliban members, including the Taliban's shadow governor of the Bamyan province, Mawlawi Anas, were killed and 13 others wounded, and 15 vehicles carrying a large amount of weapons were destroyed by an airstrike on Darah Sof Balla in the Samangan province in the central part of Afghanistan last night, the ministry said.