The Afghan military said on Tuesday that it had captured 15 suspected Taliban insurgents with rockets and automatic weapons during a raid in southern Afghanistan. The men were detained on Monday in Deh Rawood, a troubled district in the insurgency-hit south-central Uruzgan province, the regional commander, Gen Muslim Hamed, said. "We've captured 15 Taliban. We've seized weapons and documents that prove they were Taliban members," the general told AFP, adding that the arrests were made without any exchange of gunfire. He said the men were hiding in a compound and preparing for attacks on government targets in the region.Separately, a 75-year-old Afghan man was shot dead on Tuesday during a search operation in southeast Afghanistan, an Afghan intelligence official said, with the victim's family blaming his death on US troops. The US-led coalition declined to confirm or deny the death but said coalition troops only provided assistance to Afghan police and security forces. An Afghan intelligence official, Mohammed Sadiq Tarakhil, said the search operation was carried out by US forces in the village of Sarbano in Khost province. "As per reports we got from the village we can confirm that an old man was killed, six others were arrested and houses were searched last night by US troops in Sarbano village," said Tarakhil, who is intelligence director for the province.
The victim's family insisted he was shot dead by US troops. "Americans entered our house, they shot my 75-year-old brother in-law, Shayesta Khan, in his forehead and killed him," said the relative who did not want to be named. Khan's son, Dacktar Khan, said some 15 American soldiers raided their house and shot his father. He said his brother was also arrested in the raid. Villagers said US troops arrested two men from Sarbano and four others from the nearby village of Ismail Khel. US military spokeswoman Lt Cindy Moore said she could not confirm or deny the death of the old man. "I can confirm only what I know," Moore said. "We provided support to Khost police force and Afghan security forces, actually the Afghan forces lead the operations," she said. Tarakhil however said Afghan forces did not participate in the operation. "We were not informed of the operation in advance and there were no Afghan forces involved in the operation." Defence ministry spokesman Gen Mohammed Zahir Azimi said they had no report of such an operation in Khost province.