At least one suspected Taleban militant was killed and 22 others detained in a US-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, the US military spokesman said on Saturday.
"One individual that we believe was Taleban personnel was killed," military spokesman Major Scott Nelson told AFP of Friday's operation some 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Ghazni City.
The 22 others, also believed to be remnants of ousted Taleban regime, were arrested in the same region, an area between Ghazni and neighbouring Zabul province, Nelson said at a press briefing earlier on Saturday.
Coalition troops involved in the operation have launched offensives near Ghazni and south-eastern Khost province to rid it of militants believed to be behind a string of rocket attacks.
"The operations were specifically designed to try to clear rocket launch areas that were firing into villages and into our fire bases," Nelson said.
Nearly three years after the Taleban were deposed from power by US-led military campaign, remnants of the hard-line group still carry out attacks on US and government targets, often using rockets which can be fired from a distance.
Hundreds of suspected militants have been arrested in operations carried out by some 18,500 US-led military soldiers here since 2001.
"As of the 26 of August there are 435 people in detention facilities in Kandahar and Bagram," Nelson said of Taleban prisoners held by the US military.
The US military has come under fire from human rights groups for a lack of transparency over its holding of detainees and questions have been raised over the treatment of prisoners in smaller detention centres not accessible to rights groups. Nelson said offensives involving US-led troops and warplanes were part of a larger-scale US-led anti-Taleban operation dubbed "Operation Lightning Resolve" that began in July.
It was also intended to tighten security for the war-shattered country's presidential elections scheduled for October 9.
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