Five suspected insurgents have been detained during a operation of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, a Coalition statement issued Thursday said.
The Coalition said it searched compounds in the Qalat district Wednesday targeting an insurgent associated with Taliban and foreign-fighter facilitators and detained five people, including the targeted insurgent.
The detainees will be questioned on their involvement in insurgent operations as well as other extremist activities, it said.
Reports on suspected insurgents' arrests from southern Afghan provinces, where have seen more active militancy compared to the rest of the country, continued to surface during the past few days, indicating a growing military action against the anti-government networks.
Afghan National Army and the Coalition forces during a joint operation on Wednesday detained 11 suspected insurgents, found 1,000 pounds of heroin and destroyed a weapons cache near Musa Qala town in southern province of Helmand on Wednesday.
An earlier combined force action on Tuesday also brought 11 suspected Taliban militants to custody from Dey Chopan district of Zabul province.
The multi-national Coalition forces, with the majority of a 16,000-strong U.S. troops, are deployed in Afghanistan for fighting militants and ensuring security.
The southern provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan and Kandahar have been regarded as the hotbed of Taliban militants in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
The past five days saw three consecutive bombings in Kandahar, a known birthplace of Taliban fighters, leaving over 150 people dead and many more injured, almost all civilians.
Among the deadly attacks, a suicide blast on Feb. 17 rocked a dog-fighting contest near Kandahar city, the provincial capital, killed over 100 people, making it the bloodiest bombing attack since Taliban fall in 2001 in the Central Asian country.
Escalating violence claimed over 6,000 lives in the country last year and the Taliban, fighting Afghan government and foreign troops since 2001, continued to launch guerrilla-style attacks andvowed to accelerate the militant activities this year.
Source:Xinhua
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