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Afghanistan

Top Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan

2007-04-24

Afghan and NATO forces surrounded around 200 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, possibly including top militants commanders, while US-led coalition forces claimed to have killed a key rebel commander in the country's northeast, officials said on Tuesday. Afghan and NATO forces have surrounded around 200 Taliban fighters, including some senior militant commanders, in a village in southern Uruzgan province, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said. Bashary said the militants came under siege when they gathered for a meeting in Chora district and were warned to surrender or face an attack. He said the surrounded militants included some top Taliban commanders but did not name any. Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Hadi Khalid told parliament on Monday that it was possible that Mullah Dadullah, the top rebel commander for the southern region, could be among the fighters under siege. Dadullah is believed to have been responsible for the recent beheading of an Afghan journalist and his driver. US forces killed Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in Helmand province in December. Khalid said that if the militants did not surrender, the joint forces would move forward and capture them. Just don't let them slip away, ok? Meanwhile, Gul Haqparast, a rebel leader who had extensive ties to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former mujahedeen government's prime minister and currently leader of a rebel group, was killed during a US air strike in Laghman province Friday, the US military said in a statement on Tuesday. One of Hek's boys "Coalition sources described Haqparast as a significant regional Taliban leader involved in assassinations, improvised explosive device attacks and assaults on Afghan and Coalition facilities in Laghman and Kapisa provinces," the statement said. In another development, two policemen were killed and five wounded when a remote-controlled bomb blew up their vehicle in Shamelzo district of southern Zabul province on Monday, said Abdul Ghafar Safi, the provincial police chief. UPDATE: Afghan and coalition forces launched an overnight operation late Monday in Bakwa district in western Farah province, said a spokesman for the provincial police chief Baryalai Khan. He said two suspected militants were killed and two wounded, while two police personnel were also wounded, and eight suspected militants arrested in the ongoing operation. Acting on a tip in the volatile southern province of Zabul, Afghan army and NATO troops surrounded Taliban militants Monday evening and asked that they surrender, said regional Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmetullah Raufi. The Taliban opened fire, and the ensuing battle left 11 Taliban dead, but there were no casualties among Afghan or NATO troops, Raufi said. Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan said NATO troops were also involved in the siege, but NATO and the U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday they had no information to support the Afghans' account and denied their troops were involved in such an operation. A Taliban spokesman in the south, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said the Taliban were not trapped and that Dadullah was not in the area.

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Afghanistan

Trapped Like Rats!: 200 Talib surrounded

2007-04-23

Afghan forces have trapped up to 200 Taliban fighters in a southern village, possibly including the militia's military commander, (Mullah Dadullah?) demanding they surrender or come under attack, Afghan officials said Monday. Afghan police and government officials said the suspected Taliban fighters were surrounded as they gathered for a meeting in the mountain village of Keshay in Uruzgan province on Saturday. Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan said NATO troops were also involved in the siege, but NATO spokeswoman Lt. Col. Angela Billings said she had no such information. Yup. Khan told The Associated Press that Mullah Dadullah, a close aide to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, and other regional Taliban commanders were at the meeting when the village was surrounded. The security forces were still positioned around the village on Monday, he said. "We are trying to get him to surrender and to arrest these Taliban without fighting," he said. Why? Whack the whole bunch. Abdul Hadi Khalid, the deputy interior minister for security, told a security commission in parliament on Monday that it was "possible that Mullah Dadullah is among" those who were attending the meeting. He said Afghan officials had demanded that the Taliban surrender or face military action. He did not mention any deadline for negotiations. A Taliban spokesman in the south could not immediately be reached for comment. He's at the meeting, too? Khan said the Taliban fighters had gone into hiding in villagers' homes. "Wot the...? Hey! Youse can't come in here!" "Shuddup! Where's yer wife's clothes?" After a winter lull in violence, Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led forces have stepped up operations in recent weeks, hoping to pre-empt a feared spring offensive by militants that threatened the already shaky grip of President Hamid Karzai's government. Killing or capturing Dadullah would be a major victory for the Afghan government and its foreign backers. A NATO airstrike killed senior Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in southern Helmand province in December.

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