NATO said Monday its forces arrested several suspected militants in Afghanistan while looking for a man who may have been connected to a suicide attack that killed six US soldiers, DPA reported.
The operation was conducted by joint Afghan and International Security Assistance Force troops in Zherai, a district in the southern province of Kandahar, ISAF said in a statement.
"The targeted individual not only coordinates attacks, but also acquires and supplies weapons to include IEDs (improvised explosive device) and rockets throughout central Kandahar," it said, but did not say if suspect was among the detained.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden minivan near a joint military base in Zherai on Sunday, killing six US soldiers and injuring four others, Afghan and NATO military officials said.
Two Afghan soldiers and a child were also killed, while at least six other Afghan soldiers were injured, a statement by Kandahar's governor said Monday.
More than 685 international soldiers, around 480 of them US troops, have been killed in Afghanistan so far in 2010, the bloodiest year for the international troops since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
The US government sent 30,000 extra forces to Afghanistan this year, with the bulk of them deployed to the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. The joint forces have pushed militants from vast areas in Kandahar and adjoining four districts in the past four months.
The deadly bombing comes ahead of a review of Afghan war by President Barack Obama that is expected to be unveiled later this week.
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