KABUL, Sept 12: Afghan forces killed 12 suspected Taliban militants on Tuesday in a shootout south of the capital, while more than 30 suspected insurgents were detained as security forces fought back against a deadly spike in violence, officials said.

A fierce gunbattle broke out in Ghazni province’s Andar district as Afghan soldiers and police, backed by US-led coalition forces, entered an area where insurgents were holed up, said Mohammed Ali Fakuri, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Twelve militants were killed in the ensuing clash and their bodies left at the scene by comrades who fled, Fakuri said. Two policemen and one Afghan soldier were wounded.

A US-led coalition soldier was also killed and another injured when their Humvee rolled over on Monday in Kunar province’s Asadabad district, a coalition statement said.

Amid the violence, masked gunmen kidnapped a Colombian aid worker and two Afghan colleagues, working for a French-funded relief group, in Wardak province, said deputy provincial police chief Mohammed Assan.

Villagers saw the trio, who work for Mission d’Aide au Developpement des Economies Rurales en Afghanistan, ordered at gunpoint from their car and marched down a dirt road in Jalrez district, said Assan. Police found the kidnapped men’s identity documents in their abandoned vehicle.

Police arrested nine people accused of helping Afghan and Pakistani militants prepare for suicide attacks, said Tajuddin, spokesman for Afghanistan’s counterterrorism department. The nine were arrested on Friday in Logar province and transferred to Kabul for questioning.

“We have reports that four suicide bombers were aided by this group and coming from Logar,” said Tajuddin, who added one of the four was killed in a recent attack on the Jalalabad-Kabul road.

Haji Alkum, who traveled from Logar to Kabul to try ensure their release said they had a dispute with a man in their village, who accused them of being involved with suicide bombings. “They were shepherds, not terrorists,” he said.

Police also confiscated several Iranian, Chinese and Russian-made weapons, including machine-guns, bomb-making materials and thousands of rounds of ammunition, from a house in the province allegedly linked to the nine, Jalaluddin said.—AP