Kandahar - A provincial governor said Tuesday that Afghan security forces arrested 10 suspected Taliban in connection with an acid attack against 15 girls in southern Afghanistan last month.

"The 10 men were arrested by Afghan security forces in the past week," Rahmtullah Raoufi, governor for southern Kandahar province, told a press conference on Tuesday.

Raoufi said several of the detained men confessed to their crimes and the interrogation was ongoing.

He said each man received about 1,200 dollars from "high-ranking Taliban" allegedly living in neighbouring Pakistan.

A group of men squirted acid from water bottles onto several groups of female students and teachers in Kandahar city, once the birth place for the Taliban movement, on November 12. The girls suffered burns and were hospitalized.

The attack sparked widespread condemnation around the world.

President Hamid Karzai vowed last week that he would seek the public execution of the attackers if arrested and convicted.

Taliban militants, who ruled the country from 1996 to late 2001, had banned Afghan girls and women from attending schools and going to governmental offices. Women could only be seen in public places while wearing a body-hiding Burqa and accompanied by male members of their families. (dpa)