US says Afghanistan insurgent leader captured

Kabul: Afghan and coalition forces captured an insurgent leader in eastern Afghanistan, and in a separate operation 10 militants were killed in a firefight, the US military said on Saturday.

US forces said they grabbed a "key insurgent leader" in a joint raid with Afghan police Friday in a village in eastern Ghazni province. No shots were fired in the raid, the statement said.

The captured man is responsible for the deaths of Afghan troops, bomb attacks on coalition forces and the kidnapping of aid workers, according to the statement.

A spokesman declined to give further information on the leader's identity while they search for his confederates.

Coalition forces also killed 10 militants in a strike against a bomb-making cell in the eastern Paktya province on Friday, the US military said.

The troops were targeting several key figures in a network run by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a militant leader believed to operate out of Pakistan, the military statement said.