KHOST (AFP) – Eighteen Afghans working for a demining charity were kidnapped at gunpoint by men on motorcycles in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan on Thursday, officials said.

The incident took place on the edge of Khost, capital of the province of the same name, provincial police chief General Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction, but criminal groups and insurgents have kidnapped dozens of Afghans and foreigners since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul.

"Armed men riding motorcycles attacked and kidnapped 18 deminers," the police chief told AFP.

The deminers, who work for Afghanistan-based Mine Detection Center (MDC), were on their way from Musa Khel district to Khost when they were snatched.

Khost government spokesman Mubarez Mohammad Zadran confirmed the kidnapping and said the deminers had travelled without informing Afghan security forces of their itinerary.

In a similar incident on December 1, 16 people working for the Organisation for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation were kidnapped in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which also borders Pakistan.

They were released unharmed two days later.

Taliban and other Islamist insurgents fighting against the Western-backed Afghan government since the 2001 US-led invasion have rear bases in Pakistan's tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan.

US and Afghan officials say the insurgents enjoy at least some measure of protection from Pakistan -- although the army flatly denies this.