KANDAHAR, May 19: Afghan security forces have captured three Taliban commanders in a week of clashes that killed about 100 people, officials said on Friday.

But they did not confirm a BBC report that feared Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah had been caught. An Afghan general said a wounded Taliban prisoner was suspected to be Dadullah.

About 100 people were killed in violence that began on Wednesday. It included a large attack on a town in the southern province of Helmand and two suicide blasts elsewhere.

There was also heavy fighting in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, in the Panjwai district 25km west of the provincial capital.

The province’s governor told a news conference three senior Taliban members had been caught in the Kandahar fighting but he declined to identify them or say if Dadullah was among them.

“We’ve arrested three high-ranking Taliban, members of their leadership council,” said the governor, Assadullah Khalid.

The one-legged Dadullah is a member of the Taliban’s 10-man leadership council and is regarded as close to fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

His capture would be a major coup for U.S. and NATO forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai, who came to power after the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001.

There have been several erroneous reports that he had captured or surrounded in the past.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and government forces in recent months as thousands more Nato peacekeepers arrive in the country.

Foreign commanders say the Taliban want to sap domestic support for the deployments, which will push the number of foreign troops to nearly 40,000, the most since 2001.

The fighting this week was some of the heaviest since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001.

Khalid said dozens of insurgents, including some foreigners, had been killed in the Kandahar clashes. Many Taliban had been wounded and dozens captured, he said.

The BBC said Mullah Dadullah was captured by international troops near Kandahar. Foreign military officials said they could not confirm the report.

A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that Dadullah had not been captured. —Reuters