Twenty two Taliban fighters have been detained by U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan's southern province of Zabul, coalition forces spokesman Scott Nelson said Saturday. However, Nelson declined to provide detailed information about the operation, but said that a clean-up operation was ongoing in Zabul. Meanwhile, Mufti Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the ousted Taliban regime said its militia ambushed three government military vehicles in the same province on Friday, killing 12 soldiers. The Islamabad-based Afghan Islamic Press said two soldiers were killed. Afghan officials were not immediately available to comment. Currently, around 400 suspected Taliban fighters are being held in U.S. custody in the Bagram air base, north of Kabul. Some 20,000 U.S.-led troops are currently hunting the remnants of the Taliban and their allies in the al-Qaeda network, mainly in the south and southeastern regions. NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Afghan security forces as well as coalition forces have arrested more than 140 anti-government militias in the past four months. Most of the arrests have been made, in Kabul's south and south-eastern regions.
