KABUL - Up to 16 Taliban militants were killed and 15 others detained in operations in different Afghan provinces within the past 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry said Tuesday morning.

"During the past 24 hours, Afghan National Police, Afghan army and intelligence agency and the NATO-led coalition carried out five joint clearance operations in Laghman, Ghazni, Herat and Helmand provinces, killing 16 armed Taliban insurgents and detaining 16 others," the ministry said in a statement.

They also found and seized weapons, the statement said, without saying if there were any casualties on the side of security forces.

The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments.

More than 210 insurgents have been killed and nearly 100 others detained since the beginning this month, according to the figures released by the Afghan Interior Ministry.

However, the insurgents in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings.

A total of seven policemen and eight civilians were killed and 25 civilians were injured when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd in a demonstration in northern Kunduz province on Monday afternoon.