DHAKA: Members of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) rescued 168 children and arrested 281 alleged pimps in cities across the US in a week-long child sex-trafficking sting.

The FBI sources said that which reports the BBC.

‘Our children are not for sale,' FBI director James Comey said, announcing the results of what the bureau dubbed Operation Cross Country.

About 400 law enforcement agencies across more than 100 cities assisted in the haul, he said.

Some of the children had been ‘sold’ online, FBI officials said.

‘These are not faraway kids in faraway lands, these are America’s children’ Comey said.

‘This is not our first operation, and it will not be our last.’

This was the eighth such operation managed by the FBI, which has recovered nearly 3,600 children and gained convictions in 1,450 cases over 11 years, the bureau said.

‘Child sex traffickers create a living nightmare for their adolescent victims,’ said Leslie Caldwell, assistant attorney general, department of justice criminal division.

BDST: 1343 HRS, JUNE 24, 2014