KABUL, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Three Taliban militants have been killed and eight others arrested in two southern Afghan provinces, authorities said Monday.

"Three Taliban insurgents were killed after General Command of Police Special Units of Afghan National Police (ANP) conducted overnight operation in Buzcha and Chino villages on the outskirts of Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province," the Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement.

The police personnel also detected and defused an improvised explosive device (IED) after the raid in the area.

There were no casualties on the side of security force in the province, 370 km southwest of the country's capital, Kabul, the statement added.

In neighboring Kandahar province, eight Taliban militants, including five Taliban bomb and IED making experts, have been arrested by ANP following separate operations within the past week, provincial police spokesman Jamal Nasir Barakzai told Xinhua.

The arrestees confessed that they were involved in a string of bomb attacks and targeted killings in Kandahar, 450 km south of Kabul.

The Afghan security forces have beefed up security operations against Taliban militants recently as spring and summer known as the fighting season is drawing near in the country.