Three Taliban militants blew themselves up while trying to place an IED along a road in Afghanistan on Monday.

One of the militants was a local leader, named Qari Dad Mohammad, Xinhua reported. They were putting the improvised explosive device in Kunduz city, which is the capital or northern Kunduz province, and it detonated prematurely, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Husainni said, to Xinhua.

The Taliban didn’t immediately comment.

Twenty-three militant members have been killed in Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, the nation’s Interior Ministry reported on Monday.

“A series of cleanup operations in Nangarhar, Kandahar, Zabul and Helmand provinces claimed the lives of 20 armed Taliban,” Xinhua reported.”Two Taliban wounded and four other armed Taliban were arrested.”

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