KABUL (Xinhua) — More than 40 people, mostly militants, have been killed in fighting in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Thursday.

The violent clash between security forces and the Taliban outfit left eight police personnel and seven militants dead on Thursday in Chardara district of the northern Kunduz province, army spokesman in the northern region Abdul Hadi Jamal confirmed.

According to Jamal, six militants and 10 security personnel were injured in the fighting which was still continuing sporadically. Meanwhile, the armed militants gunned down a headmaster of a primary school in Panjwai district of the southern Kandahar province on Thursday morning, according to local officials.

In crackdown against Taliban, the government forces had been targeting the outfit’s hideouts from the ground and the air in Kandahar province since Wednesday and killed 23 Taliban fighters, said an army statement released on Thursday. Over a dozen militants were injured, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Afzali, an official of the western Badghis provincial council, said 13 policemen gave up resistance and joined Taliban outfit in restive Muqar district of the province on Wednesday night. The police have yet to make comments.

The government forces’ airstrikes killed seven militants including a group commander Mawlawi Khyber affiliated with hardliner Islamic State (IS) group in the eastern Kunar province on Wednesday, an army statement said Thursday.