Nine Taliban were killed, six were arrested Tuesday in an offensive operation carried out by Coalition and Afghan forces in Afghan southern province of Uruzgan, the provincial governor said.

"Today the Coalition, Afghan National Army (ANA) and Afghan National Police (ANP) carried out an offensive operation to the Taliban center in Charchino district, and killed nine militants, arrested six. Other militants fled away afterwards," Jan Mohammad Khan told Xinhua.

"We know the spot of the Taliban center through the interrogation of a Taliban commander named Abdul Khaliq who was arrested Monday. In the operation, one police was also killed," he added.

Taliban spokesperson Qari Yusuf Ahmadi confirmed the operation, but said Taliban attacked Coalition and Afghan forces before their action, and Taliban used rockets to destroyed a US vehicle and killed four US soldiers.

Uruzgan, together with Kandahar, Zabul and Helmand, the former stronghold of Taliban regime, has become the hotspot of militancy since the beginning of this year.

Three including one policeman were killed, two were injured when Taliban attacked a group of police and local persons in the southern Helmand province Monday.

More than 1,500 people, with the majority of them Taliban, have been killed in Taliban-linked militancy this year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2005)