(Adds official's comments, clash) By Saeed Ali Achakzai SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, April 24 (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO troops have surrounded more than 200 Taliban insurgents and their feared military commander Mullah Dadullah might be among them, Afghan officials said on Tuesday. A Taliban spokesman denied that Dadullah was surrounded and said he was not even in Uruzgan province, where provincial security chief General Muhammad Qasim said troops had encircled the militants. "We got information that senior Taliban commanders came for a meeting in the area. We want to capture all of the Taliban including the commanders," Qasim told Reuters. Several private television stations quoted deputy interior minister Abdul Hadi Khalid as saying that Dadullah might be among the militants. "There is a strong possibility that he is surrounded too." A spokesman for NATO forces said they had no information about fighting in Uruzgan. It is not the first time Afghan security officials have believed Dadullah, a one-legged commander in charge of the insurgency in the south of the country, was surrounded. Last year, Afghan officials thought he had been killed in battle. Qasim said the group of Taliban had been surrounded for three days in Uruzgan's Charcheno district. He said there were civilians in the area and government forces were trying to get the Taliban to give up without a fight. A Taliban spokesman rejected the report, saying Dadullah was in neighbouring Helmand province, not Uruzgan. "No senior Taliban commander is surrounded in Uruzgan. It's baseless disinformation," the spokesman for Dadullah, Shahabuddin Atal said by telephone. Dadullah earned a reputation as a ruthless commander during the Taliban's rule of the country before they were driven from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001. He has threatened to launch a big offensive this spring that would involve thousands of suicide bombers. Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001. Violence has been picking up in recent weeks after a winter lull but a major Taliban offensive has yet to materialise. Separately, Afghan and NATO forces clashed with Taliban guerrillas in neighbouring Zabul province and killed 11 militants on Monday, a senior army commander in the region said on Tuesday. He said there were no casualties among the troops.
