Taliban remains in control of southern Afghan town; 2 suspected al-Qaida members arrested

(AP) Taliban militants remain in control of a southern Afghan town nearly a week after capturing it, but NATO expects the Afghan government to soon reassert its authority there, an alliance spokesman said Wednesday.

Some 200 people have fled the southern town of Musa Qala after militants captured it last week, said Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

The Taliban fighters _ whose local leader was killed in a NATO airstrike on Sunday _ are operating in the town center but are not reinforcing their presence there, Collins said.

The town was peaceful for four months following an October peace deal between village elders and the Helmand provincial government. The deal prevented NATO, Afghan and Taliban fighters from coming within 3 miles of the town center.

Last Thursday, a group of some 200 militants moved into town, disarmed the local police force, destroyed the district center and temporarily held the local elders hostage.

Collins said NATO troops stand ready to help the government again take control of the town but that there "is no need to rush to action here."

"We are confident that the government of Afghanistan, with ISAF's support, will take back Musa Qala at a time and place that is most advantageous" to them, Collins said.

Coalition forces, meanwhile, captured two suspected al-Qaida members during an early morning raid in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, a military statement said. Afghan officials said soldiers captured six men and killed one person during the raid.

The raid near the town of Hakimabad in Nangarhar province was conducted based on information provided "about an al-Qaida member known to pass correspondence for al-Qaida senior leaders," the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.

The two Afghan men were taken into custody to determine their association with al-Qaida, the statement said.

Ghafoor Khan, the spokesman for the provincial police chief, said coalition troops shot and killed one person during the raid, and that six people were detained and taken away. He said the raid took place 10 miles south of Jalalabad.

The reason for the discrepancy in the number arrested was not immediately clear.

Several militant groups including al-Qaida, the Taliban, and fighters for warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, operate in eastern Afghanistan. The groups do not always operate together, though they may share the same goals.

The military did not say who executed the raid, but U.S. Special Forces soldiers operate under the banner of "coalition forces" in Afghanistan. Coalition forces work under a separate command structure than NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

In Kandahar province, a remote-controlled bomb exploded next to a car carrying Afghan security guards Wednesday, killing two of them and wounding six, said Abdul Khaliq, who was riding in the convoy.

The attack happened in the district of Neven as the convoy was transporting supplies for a NATO base in Helmand, Khaliq said.

In the western province of Herat, meanwhile, three police died and one was injured while attempting to disarm a roadside bomb discovered in Shindand district, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.