KABUL, Oct. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- More than 25 individuals with reported links to the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies were arrested by Afghan security forces overnight in two locations, spokesmen said Saturday.

    Twenty-five personnel with reported ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda as well as wayward warlord Hekmatyar were arrested between 3a.m. and 5 a.m. Saturday in the Pol-e-Charkhi district in Kabul, Ken MacKillop, spokesman for NATO-led international peacekeepers ISAF told journalists here at a routine news briefing.

    The operation was backed up by ISAF and Coalition forces, he added.

    The Pol-e-Charkhi district, located to the immediate east of the capital, has been known as a hotbed for Hekmatyar as many of its residents are Pashtuns, the backbone of the Taliban movement.

    In another raid carried out in Laghman province to the east andnortheast of the capital, a number of terror suspects were also captured, Scott Nelson, spokesman for the US-dominated Coalition, said on the same occasion.

    However, both of the officers refused to furnish more details.

    The ISAF and Afghan security authorities as well as the Coalition have stepped up tracking down the remnants of the Taliban and its allies in the lead up to the first presidential elections rescheduled on next Saturday. Enditem