Up to 13 Taliban insurgents have been killed and 33 captured in six cleanup operations carried out by Afghan police, army and the NATO-led coalition forces within the past 24 hours, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

"The joint operations were conducted in Nuristan, Zabul, Wardak, Logar, Ghazni and Herat provinces and two other armed insurgents were wounded during the above raids," the ministry said in a statement providing morning operational updates to the media.

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

However, the Taliban insurgent group, which announced the launching of an annual spring offensive from May 3 against Afghan and NATO forces, has not to make any comments.

Afghan forces and some 130,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militants throughout the country recently.

More than 440 insurgents had been killed, 46 wounded and over 280 detained by the joint force since the beginning of this month, according to the figures released by the country's Interior Ministry.

However, the Taliban insurgents, who have been waging more than a decade-long insurgency, in retaliation responded by carrying out suicide attacks and roadside bombings especially in southern and eastern parts of the country.

A total of seven children were killed when a bomb, initially planted by insurgents to target security forces, went off in western Ghor province Tuesday afternoon.