At least 23 Taliban militants were killed and 5 others were arrested in NATO and Afghan forces operations in Kunar province on Saturday night, said officials

These militants killed were in three districts of Kunar province and five others were arrested in these operations, said ISAF in a press release.

Afghan officials say that they have seized some ammunition in these operations.

There were no Afghan and NATO casualties in the operations, officials add.

Taliban claim that they shot down a NATO chopper, a claim denied by NATO forces who said it was an emergency landing for technical problems.

Meanwhile Officials in the Ministry of Defence say modern weapons are used in special operations conducted by Afghan and coalition forces, which have had positive results.

"In many of these operations that are conducted at night according to specific plans, there are no casualties both on our side and the civilians' side," said Gen. Zahir Azimi a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence.

Afghan and coalition forces have escalated their counter-insurgency attacks to wipe out Taliban insurgents from Afghanistan's unstable areas to maintain security ahead of the upcoming Afghan parliamentary elections.