More than 40 fighters from warring sides have been killed in Afghanistan over the past four days as anti-government militants, above all the Taliban outfit, have intensified activities since Jan. 1 this year, officials said Friday.

According to the officials, nearly 20 of those killed over the past four days are security personnel and more than two dozen others are Taliban militants who have been killed elsewhere in the war-battered country.

In the latest waves of crackdown against militants, government forces launched cleanup operations in parts of the restive Tishkan district in the northern Badakhshan province on Thursday, killing seven militants and injuring eight others, provincial police spokesman Sanahullah Rohani said Friday.

According to the official, two security personnel have also been injured in the ongoing operations.

Similarly, government forces raided Taliban positions in Nijrab district of the eastern Kapisa province on Thursday evening, killing seven militants and injuring three others, an army statement released Friday said.

Three more militants were killed when their explosive device went off in Chamtal district of the northern Balkh province on Thursday, an army spokesman in the province named Abdul Hadi Jamal said.

More than a dozen militants have been killed in Ghazni, Paktia, Paktika, Daikundi, Farah and other parts of Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, according to a statement of Defense Ministry

Meanwhile, officials have confirmed that the Taliban offensives against security forces have killed 13 security personnel in the southern Kandahar and northern Baghlan province since Tuesday.

According to an official who declined to be identified, at least five Afghan soldiers were killed and six others wounded after Taliban militants attacked an army camp in Maiwand district of southern Kandahar province on Tuesday night.

The militants in an identical attack against security forces stormed a security checkpoint on a road outside Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of northern Baghlan province on Wednesday night, killing eight police personnel and injuring two others, a member of provincial council Safdar Mohseni confirmed to Xinhua.