Sayed Munir, the district police chief of Khoghyani district in Ghazni province, and three other policemen were killed in clashes with the Taliban early Tuesday, provincial police officials confirmed in a statement.

In addition, three other policemen were wounded.

The statement said that the security forces launched military operations in Khoghyani, Andar, Qarabagh, Muqor and the center of the province to clear the areas of insurgents. 

According to the statement, in the past 24 hours “33 Taliban were killed, and four others were wounded.”

“At about 1:25am the Taliban launched a large attack on Khoghyani district in which the police chief of the district and three other policemen were killed and three more policemen were wounded,” it said. 

However, the statement did not provide further details about the operations.

The Taliban has not yet commented.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the Afghan security forces have doubled their offensive operations against insurgents, their hideouts and strongholds in many regions of the country after President Ashraf Ghani declared an end to government’s unilateral ceasefire with the Taliban.

Following the end of the unilateral ceasefire, air operations and security forces’ operations have been doubled against insurgents, compared to previous months, the MoD said.

Defense officials have said that currently the Afghan security forces are carrying out their planned, anti-insurgent campaign in at least nine provinces.

According to Afghan military officials, the operations are also aimed at boosting security ahead of the scheduled parliamentary and district council elections. 

Kunar, Nangarhar, Farah, Helmand, Kunduz, Faryab, Uruzgan and Ghazni are among the provinces where security forces are currently trying to tackle insurgents. Security forces are also conducting operations in the eastern and western regions of the country.