KABUL, June 24: Taliban fighters have seized 18 Afghan mine clearing experts and threatened to kill them if investigations suggest they are working for US-led forces in the country, officials and the insurgents said on Sunday.

The group was seized along with four specialist mine-sniffing dogs, which can take years to train, on Saturday in the Andar district of Ghazni province, part of the eastern and southern “badlands” where the Taliban are at their strongest.

“Our investigation is on going and after the investigation we will decide what to do,” Taliban commander Mullah Safiullah told journalists by satellite phone. Shohab Hakimi, head of the Mine Detection Dog Centre said nine of his staff and nine others from the Mine Clearance Planning Agency were seized at gunpoint.—Reuters