Britain is seeking clarification following reports that US commandos have been arrested in Afghanistan, junior Foreign Minister Ben Bradshaw said on Saturday.
"I think we have to wait for clarification of this," he told BBC Radio Four's Today program, saying that there had been no independent confirmation of the report on Qatar's Al-Jazeera television that three US commandos and two Afghans holding US citizenship had been arrested in western Afghanistan.
The reports were denied on Saturday by the ruling Taliban's official news agency. "This is not true. We haven't arrested anybody," said an official at the Taliban's Bakhtar news agency.
Bradshaw would not confirm that US and British commandos were in Afghanistan in search of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. But he made clear Britain was well informed of the situation on the ground there.
"I don't think anyone would be surprised that activities of a reconnaissance nature have been taking place," he said. "We certainly in Britain never comment on those or the presence of UK forces in Afghanistan."
"We know that what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan is that the grip of the Taliban is weakening and the divisions that have been there for some time are becoming wider and wider. That is good news," he said.
The Qatar television station, quoting its correspondent in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, said the US "special forces" personnel were arrested on Afghan territory "in possession of weapons and maps of locations of the Al-Qaeda organization" of Osama bin Laden.
The five detainees had been on a "reconnaissance mission" and their pictures would be published soon, it said.
Bin Laden is wanted "dead or alive" by the United States for his alleged role in the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York and President George W. Bush said on Friday the US was "in hot pursuit."
There have been reports that small teams of US and British commandos have been operating inside Afghanistan for two weeks, but US officials have refused to comment on force deployments in the region -- LONDON (AFP)
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