By David Fox KABUL, June 24 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters have seized 18 Afghan mine clearing experts and threatened to kill them if investigations suggest they are working for U.S.-led forces in the country, officials and the insurgents said on Sunday. The group was seized along with four specialist mine-sniffing dogs, which can take years to train, on Saturday in the Andar district of Ghazni province, part of the eastern and southern "badlands" where the Taliban are at their strongest. "Our investigation is on going and after the investigation we will decide what to do," Taliban commander Mullah Safiullah told Reuters by satellite phone. Shohab Hakimi, head of the Mine Detection Dog Centre (MDC) said nine of his staff and nine others from the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA) were seized at gunpoint. "For the last 18 years they have worked in Afghanistan for Afghanistan," he said, appealing to the Taliban to release the deminers. Afghanistan remains one of the mostly heavily mined countries in the world, a legacy of decades of conflict as well as the 10-year Soviet occupation. A number of non-governmental organisations have mine-clearing operations in the country, and their activities have been well supported at home and in the West following the international campaign spearheaded by the late Princess Diana. Hakimi told Reuters that the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, had previously given mine clearers "protected status" and that he hoped this ruling would still apply. "If senior Taliban leaders know about this, then I am sure it can be resolved," Hakimi said, adding that the Taliban had made no demands for their release. "They warned that they would kill them if we involved foreign forces," he added. Taliban fighters have executed a number of foreigners they have accused of spying or working for the U.S.-led foreign forces since their overthrow in December 2001. After scattering following their ousting, the Taliban has now re-grouped in the south and east -- the poppy-producing regions responsible for over 90 percent of the world's heroin -- and are engaged in daily clashes with U.S-led and Afghan troops as summer heralds an increase in fighting. Hundreds of Taliban fighters and their allies have been killed in fighting this year as well as an increasing number of civilians caught up in the clashes. More than 230 civilians have been killed this year alone during operations by foreign and Afghan forces, according to an umbrella body for aid groups in Afghanistan.
