KANDAHAR, April 8: The US military launched an operation against suspected Taliban hideouts in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday while Afghan authorities detained 40 Taliban supporters, Afghan officials said.

Nearly two dozen helicopter gunships and about 70 vehicles took part in the US operation, which began after dawn in the rugged Sangin district of Helmand province, regional intelligence chief Dad Mohammad Khan told Reuters.

He said US forces had information that Mullah Dadullah, a top military leader of the Taliban was hiding in Sangin. Two US military personnel were killed when their convoy was ambushed in Sangin late last month.

Dadullah recently told foreign media the Taliban were regrouping to regain power.

Khan said Dadullah was not in Sangin, but that the brother of Mullah Akhtar Usmani, who was a key Taliban commander in neighbouring Kandahar province, was hiding in the area.

The US military in Afghanistan made no mention of any new operation in Helmand at its daily briefing on Tuesday.

Khan said the US forces were carrying out house-to-house searches in Sangin. “The operation is a massive one,” he said by satellite phone from Helmand.

Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, said 40 Taliban supporters had been arrested in the provincial capital on Tuesday.

He said they had been detained after ignoring a warning nearly two weeks ago to leave. He said they included two important Taliban members, but declined to give details.

The operation is Helmand was the second by US-led forces in the province this year.

In February they targeted the Baghran region, where locals said at least 17 villagers were killed in US bombardments. The US military insists only one civilian was wounded.—Reuters