Kandahar, Afghanistan (AP) Police in Afghanistan say they've captured a senior Taliban commander.

Mullah Naqibullah has been captured twice before, including just two months ago, but he escaped from prison both times.

A provincial police chief says a gang of militants led by Naqibullah, all wearing police uniforms, attacked a police convoy yesterday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province. Three of the militants died in the gunbattle and Naqibullah was captured.

Helmand is the center of Afghanistan's opium trade and has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war between militants and coalition troops.