KABUL (Xinhua) — At least 14 Taliban militants have been killed and three militants wounded in separate incidents in Afghanistan as fighting rages in the country, authorities said Monday.

In one incident, five militants were killed and three others wounded after they stormed security checkpoints in Qush Tepa district of northern Jawzjan province Sunday night, the provincial government spokesman Faridoon Aniq told Xinhua.

Three security forces were also wounded during the clashes in the remote district in south-western of the provincial capital, Shiberghan city, the spokesman added.

Elsewhere, nine militants were killed following separate Afghan Special Forces-led air strikes on outskirts of Qalat, capital of southern province of Zabul and Musa Qala and Kajaki districts of neighbouring Helmand province on Sunday, the command of special forces said in a statement earlier in the day.

The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces remain in control of most of Afghanistan’s population centres and all of 34 provincial capitals, but Taliban insurgents control large portions of rural areas, staging coordinated large-scale attacks against Afghan cities and districts since early last year.