Three senior Taliban captured in Afghan clashes

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 19 (Reuters) Three senior Taliban members were captured this week, Afghan authorities today said, as police hunted for more insurgents after two days of bloody clashes, But officials did not confirm a BBC report that feared Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah had been caught.

About 100 people were killed in violence that began on Wednesday.

It included a large-scale attack on a town in the southern province of Helmand and two suicide blasts in different parts of the country.

There was also heavy fighting in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, in the Panjwai district 25 km (16 miles) west of the provincial capital.

The province's governor told a news conference three senior Taliban members had had been in Kandahar fighting but he declined to identify them or say if one of them was Dadullah.

''We've arrested three high-ranking Taliban, members of their leadership council,'' said the governor, Assadullah Khalid.

Dadullah is a member of the Taliban's 10-man leadership council and is regarded as close to fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

There have in the past been several erroneous reports that he had captured or surrounded.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and Afghan government forces in recent months as thousands more NATO peacekeepers arrive in the country.

Foreign commanders say the Taliban want to sap domestic support for the deployments, which will push the number of foreign troops to nearly 40,000, the most since 2001.

The BBC said Mullah Dadullah was captured by international troops in Kandahar but Afghan and foreign military officials said they could not confirm the report.

The commander of Afghan forces in the south, General Rahmatullah Raufi, said a seriously wounded militant with only one leg had been captured.

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