KABUL: Afghan forces with air support from Nato are in their third day of a major offensive against a northeastern province that serves as a major insurgent supply route from Pakistan.

Nuristan provincial spokesman Mohammad Zareen said Saturday that nearly 30 insurgents have been killed and at least 30 have been wounded in the operation that began Thursday night in Kamdesh district, a hotbed of the insurgency in northeast Afghanistan.

He says government-backed forces are trying to prevent the area from being used as a key supply route for insurgents in the east and keep militants from crossing back and forth across the border.

One Afghan policemen and a woman have been killed in the shooting.

At least four Afghan soldiers and an Afghan woman have been wounded.