Bombings, fighting, bloody Afghanistan

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KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Bloodshed was reported across Afghanistan Wednesday, with Afghan and NATO forces battling insurgents, officials said.

Khaama Press reported Interior Affairs Ministry officials said at least nine militants were killed and 23 detained in the previous 24 hours in operations conducted in Kabul, Baghlan, Nimrooz, Urozgan, Logar, Ghazni, Khost and Paktika provinces.

Khaama Press said there were unconfirmed reports at least six Afghan civilians had died in a joint Afghan-NATO operation in Kunar province. The International Security Assistance Force issued a statement saying at least nine militants had been killed in an operation in the province. NATO officials said at least two militants had been dressed as women.

Reports that the brother of a Taliban commander had died in the Kunar operation were unconfirmed, Khaama Press said.

The BBC reported 13 people died in two attacks in Helmand province. In one, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated explosives in a bazaar in Kajaki district, killing seven civilians and two police officers. In the other, a roadside bomb killed a local intelligence official and at least two others in Nad-e-Ali district.

The U.S. Defense Department said in a release a Taliban leader was captured in a joint operation in the Panjwai district of Afghanistan's Kandahar province Wednesday.

The U.S. military said several suspected militants were detained in operations in Khost, Wardak, Nangarhar and Uruzgan in the past two days.