"We are quite satisfied," Gen. Sayed Agha Saqib, the provincial police chief of Kandahar said at news conference in the provincial capital, where some of the captured fighters were paraded out for the media.

"We want to take them out of their cycle of watching us and planting (improvised explosive devices)," said [Fraser Auld].

Auld conceded that there are tribal and family ties in the restive farm region outside of the provincial capital, which allow the Taliban "freedom of movement" and tacit support.