An Afghan journalist was held for questioning by US-led troops after he was arrested by Afghan military forces for allegedly having links with the ousted Taleban in south-eastern Afghanistan, an officials said.
Muhammad Qasim Jan was arrested Wednesday by local militia forces in Khost and was detained by the 25th division of Khost, military commander Khyal Baz Khan told AFP.
He was later handed over to the US forces at the Khost airport for questioning, Khan said, adding that the Americans had asked for his hand over. "The Americans asked us to hand him over to them for questioning," he said. Khan said that the journalist is suspected to have "close relation with the Taleban" and had served as a commander of a Taleban checkpoint before the US-led military campaign in late 2001 which toppled the fundamentalist regime.
A freelance cameraman, Qasim had been working as a stringer during Taleban's rule.
US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty said he was unaware of the arrest.
THREE KILLED: KABUL: Three civilians were killed and seven wounded when an Afghan tank hit a mine in the central Uruzgan province, a local official said on Sunday.
The tank crew escaped uninjured, said Haji Farooq, an aide to the chief of the Charcheno district where the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon.
It was not clear whether the mine had been freshly laid or had gone undetected in one of the world's most heavily mined countries.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on surrounding homes and civilians after the tank hit the mine.
Farooq told Reuters the civilian casualties were caused by the force of the blast.
US-led troops in Afghanistan have a base in Uruzgan province. It borders Zabul, one of the most unstable provinces in the country where Taleban and other Islamic militants have launched a series of deadly attacks in recent months.