A prominent Taliban commander has been captured by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan.

The militant leader, who has not yet been identified, was detained during a raid by NATO and Afghan troops on a compound in Helmand province, the alliance said on Wednesday.

According to a NATO spokesman, the commander led insurgents in the volatile Panjwaii district of Kandahar province, said NATO spokesman Squadron Leader Dave Marsh.

"This seizure of a Taliban commander once again shows that there is nowhere to hide for insurgent leaders," Marsh said.

Most of Canada's roughly 2,500 troops serving in Afghanistan are stationed in Kandahar province.

Last summer, NATO forces staged Operation Medusa, the largest ground offensive in the alliance's history, in the region.

The capture appears to be a victory for NATO forces, said CTV's Paul Workman, reporting from Kandahar.

"NATO hasn't given us a name yet and details are really quite vague, but they seem to believe they've arrested a regional commander, somebody who may have been involved in directing attacks against Canadian forces, we don't know, but they believe certainly against NATO forces," Workman told CTV Newsnet.

The alliance said the commander was fleeing another NATO campaign in the region when he was captured in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.

Marsh said alliance authorities are convinced the man is a regional commander that NATO forces have been watching for a long time.

The raid came a day after Afghan agents arrested Mohammad Hanif, a purported Taliban spokesman, near the border with Pakistan.

Hanif is one of two spokesmen who often contacts journalists on behalf of the militia. He was arrested at the border town of Torkham on Monday after crossing from Pakistan, said Sayed Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service.

Two people traveling with Hanif also were detained, Ansari said.

Earlier accounts by Noor Agha Zooak, a spokesman for the governor of the Nangarhar province where the arrest took place, claimed that Hanif and his two companions were detained in a raid at a house further from the border crossing.

It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy in the accounts.

Zooak said Hanif was being questioned by intelligence agents in Nangarhar's capital, Jalalabad.

Weapons, cell phones and other documents, which were shown to journalists in Jalalabad on Wednesday, were also recovered.

Hanif used to convey statements purportedly from Taliban leader Mullah Omar and comment on fighting in the north, center and east of the country.

Another purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, confirmed Hanif's arrest in a phone call from an undisclosed location, but said that the Taliban's governing body already has appointed Zadiullah Mujahid as his replacement.

Western and Afghan officials have claimed a number of recent successes against top Taliban officials, including a U.S.-led coalition airstrike that killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, a key associate of Omar and the highest-ranking Taliban leader killed by the U.S.-led coalition since the late 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The Taliban has stepped up its attacks in the past year, and roughly 4,000 people have been killed in violence related to the insurgency, according to a count by The Associated Press.

With files from The Associated Press