The Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) said on Sunday that 63 Taliban militants, including seven suicide attackers, had been killed and 29 others injured in the southern province of Kandahar over the past 72 hours.

The Taliban were hunted down in their hideouts across the province by a mortar team of NDS 03 Unit, the authority said in a press release.

Kandahar saw heavy clashes between the Afghan national security forces and the Taliban this past week.

According to statements by the Afghan Ministry of Defense, over 150 Taliban were killed in clashes with the army since 9 December.

On Saturday, USFOR-A, the contingent of US forces in Afghanistan, confirmed having conducted an air strike against the Taliban after the group attacked an Afghan army checkpoint in Kandahar's Zhari district on 10 December.

Meanwhile, Sputnik reported that an explosion targeted the car of an Afghani parliamentarian, leaving dead and wounded