Police in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have arrested the superintendent and 25 warders of the city's main jail, from which 41 Taliban militants escaped through a tunnel this month, a police official said on Friday.

Police chief Mohammad Hashim denied reports from other local officials on Thursday that three fugitives had been recaptured.

"It is completely not true, we have not rearrested any of the Taliban escapees yet," he told Reuters. "We have only arrested 26 security people who were in charge of the prison."

Kandahar governor Yusuf Pashtun said on Thursday employees of the prison may have been involved in the escape.

"So far we haven't recaptured any of the Taliban prisoners who escaped, but an operation is going on with that aim," Pashtun said.

A senior official of the Afghan foreign ministry in the province of Kandahar told Reuters on Thursday three of the fugitives were arrested a few days ago but did not name them.

The prisoners escaped through a 30-m (98-foot) tunnel last Friday, causing embarrassment for the government of President Hamid Karzai and presenting yet another security headache in the troubled region.

Afghan officials say the group included five or six important Taliban figures, including a brother of Taliban defence minister Mawlavi Obaidullah.

Kandahar, which borders Pakistan, was the birthplace of the Taliban and has been the scene of many recent guerrilla attacks that have curtailed aid and reconstruction.

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