KANDAHAR - Afghan and international soldiers destroyed a Taliban headquarters in an operation just outside Kandahar city Sunday that killed an estimated 25 rebels, the US-led coalition said.
The overnight swoop on the complex about 17 kilometres (10 miles) southwest of Kandahar was based on intelligence that insurgents were attempting to re-establish control after being defeated there last year, it said.
Soldiers moved through the compounds, coming under heavy fire. One man blew himself up in an apparent suicide attack that did not cause casualties to the security forces, it said in a statement.
Coalition war planes struck the area, causing many of the deaths, it said.
The complex of seven buildings was believed to be the base for several attacks on the nearby Highway One, an often-targeted road linking Kandahar and the western city of Herat, the statement said.
The Taliban first took Kandahar in their sweep to power in 1996 with the help of elements in Pakistan who are said to be aiding the insurgency against the new administration.
They were driven from government in late 2001 by the coalition, which is still tracking Taliban fighters and their allies in Al-Qaeda.
Authorities in Kandahar city said Sunday they had detained four Pakistanis on suspicion of helping insurgents build bombs.
"On a tip-off we captured four Pakistanis who are experts in making suicide-bombing vests and remote-controlled bombs," intelligence official Abdul Qayoum Katawazi told AFP.
He would not provide further details, citing an ongoing investigation.
Roadside bombs and Iraq-style suicide explosions have become key tactics for the rebels, who have intensified their attacks as part of a bloody insurgency they are waging against the government in Kabul.
A new bombing killed three patrolling Afghan army soldiers on Saturday in Kandahar's Zahri distict, the defence ministry said in a statement. Two other soldiers were injured.
Around 10 Afghan civilians were meanwhile injured in a bombing in the normally calm northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late Saturday, police said.
The bomb, which was attached to a bicycle, was detonated by remote control, police official Abdul Rauf Taj said.
"It was an act of terrorism," Taj said. No one immediately claimed responsibility, but similar attacks have been blamed on Taliban guerrillas.
09/02/2007 12:23 GMT