Kandahar, July 23 :

Afghan security forces today killed 19 Taliban guerrillas and captured 17 others during a major operation against the rebels in volatile southern Afghanistan, a deputy governor said.

Two Pakistani militants were among those captured during the sweep near Lashkar Gah, the capital of troubled Helmand province, deputy provincial governor Mullah Amir Akhundzada said.

“We’ve launched a big operation in the area and it’s ongoing right now,” Akhundzada told AFP.

The operation was launched after village elders complained to the local government that Taliban fighters were intimidating them in various ways, including allegedly extorting money.

Meanwhile, a report from Khost said Taliban militants killed three policemen and kidnapped three others after they attacked a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, police said today. A police company commander was shot dead with two colleagues after the rebels attacked their post in Ghazni late Saturday, a provincial police official said.

“The Taliban attacked and killed three policemen and kidnapped three others,” the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, police detained a suspected would-be bomber in the eastern city of Khost,bordering Pakistan, provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoob said.

The man was carrying several rocket rounds, detonators and other bomb-making materials across the city, Ayoob said. A report from Kabul said the US-led coalition today was investigating two near-simultaneous suicide blasts in Kandahar that killed eight people, including two Canadian soldiers — a brazen attack claimed by the Taliban.

Six Afghan civilians also died and more than 20 others were wounded in Saturday’s attack, which came as NATO prepares to take control of Afghanistan’s volatile southern regions, one of the alliance’s most dangerous missions ever.