KABUL, July 8: Afghan intelligence agents have talked to Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar after commandeering a satellite phone being used by his top aide, an official claimed on Thursday.

Mullah Omar, along with Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, has escaped a US-led dragnet which now numbers some 20,000 soldiers since the ousting of his government in 2001.

A man believed to be Mullah Omar's aide, Mullah Sakhi Dad Mujahid, was captured on Tuesday while carrying a satellite telephone containing the phone numbers of top members of the ousted government, Kandahar intelligence chief Abdullah Laghmanai said.

"We contacted Mullah Omar by Mullah Mujahid's phone," he said, adding that at first Mullah Mujahid was forced to talk to his boss on the phone. "But when he (Omar) realized the situation ... he cut off the phone."

"Salam-aleikum, where are you?" Mullah Omar asked Mullah Mujahid, according to Mr Laghmanai, who did not say when the call was made. Mullah Mujahid, as he is known locally, was arrested on Tuesday during a raid in Dara-i-Noor, some 70kms north of Kandahar.

The area is in the rugged border region between Uruzgan and Kandahar and known to US military officials as the 'Taliban heartland'. Mullah Mujahid served as Mullah Omar's secretary under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule.

"Currently he was serving as Mullah Omar's military assistant," he said. Kandahar military spokesman General Abdul Wasay confirmed the arrest. "The arrest of Mullah Mujahid will pacify Taliban's activities in the area," where he was captured, he said.

Mr Laghmanai said subsequent efforts to contact Mullah Omar had been unsuccessful as the one-eyed Taliban boss refuses to answer phone calls 'from strange numbers'.

"Maybe Omar has found out that his friend is under our control," he said. "He doesn't answer his telephone." Mullah Mujahid was transferred in handcuffs to Kabul on Wednesday for investigation, which authorities hope could lead to the arrest of other militants.

Mr Laghmanai alleged that intelligence reports as well as information received from Mujahid suggested Mullah Omar was hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas near Kandahar and close to Quetta. "The information Mujahid provided, and also our intelligence, suggests that Omar is in Pakistan's tribal areas," he said.

FOREIGNERS HELD: Three foreigners, including a US national, have been arrested for setting up a private vigilante group here to detain suspected terrorists, a minister said Thursday.

"Three foreigners who had formed a self-made group and were claiming their aims were to act against those carrying out terrorist attacks, have been arrested," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said.

Four Afghans were also arrested along with the foreigners for allegedly illegally holding eight local people in a private jail as part of their personal war against terror. "They did not have any legal connection with anyone and the United States was also chasing them," Mr Jalali said. "They are actually rebels."

"The group had illegally arrested eight Afghans from Kabul and kept them in their custody," Mr Jalali added. The men were arrested on Monday night in a house near the Intercontinental Hotel in western Kabul.

The identity of the two other foreign nationals is not known. "They were operating under the fake name of an export company," Mr Jalali told a press conference in Kabul.

A spokesman for the US embassy, who asked not to be named, said he was unable to confirm the number of American nationals arrested. On July 5 the American-led coalition force issued a press release in which it warned against an individual named as Jonathan K. Idema.

"US citizen Jonathan K. Idema has allegedly represented himself as an American government and/or military official," the statement said. "The public should be aware that Idema does not represent the American government and we do not employ him." -AFP