Taliban News Agency Denies Report of US Soldiers Being Arrested

"It is totally wrong. We deny this news that they have come to our areas," Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the Taleiban Defence Minister told Reuters in Kabul.

The al-Jazeera television station said it had been contacted by a source from Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation who said the Taleban had detained the team of five, who were on a reconnaisance mission.

The source said the captured men were being interrogated and their photographs would be released soon.

Osama Bin Laden has in the past sent information about al-Qaeda's activities and views to the al-Jazeera station.

On Friday an unnamed senior White House official confirmed that US and UK special forces were operating inside Afghanistan.

The official said the commandos were carrying out scouting and reconnaissance missions, but were not actively hunting for Bin Laden, Washington's main suspect in the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.

US Special Forces 'Held in Afghanistan': al-Jazeera Television

A team of United States special forces is reported to have been captured inside Afghanistan by Taleban forces.

Qatar's al-Jazeera television said it had been contacted by a source from Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation.

The source said Taleban forces had detained five people - three of them Americans - on a reconnaisance mission near the border with Iran.

"Our correspondent in Islamabad cited sources in Afghanistan as saying that the Afghan security services have arrested five armed persons in Helmand, adjacent to the border with Iran. They are three Americans and two Afghans", al-Jazeera said.

"The three Americans are from the US Special Forces," the correspondent quoted the source as saying.

"They had some modern weapons and some maps of al-Qaeda sites. They were on a reconnassiance mission to know the territory of al Qaeda".

The source said they would release photographs of the captured men soon.

Osama Bin Laden has in the past sent information about al-Qaeda's activities and views to the al-Jazeera station.

A senior White House official confirmed on Friday that US and UK special forces have been operating inside Afghanistan.

He said the commandos were carrying out scouting and reconnaissance missions, but were not actively hunting for the prime suspect Osama bin Laden, the unnamed official said.








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