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Mullah Abdul Hanan

Mullah Abdul Hanan

Taliban

Afghanistan/South Asia

Afghan

20050623

Afghanistan/South Asia

Taliban leadership may be surrounded

2005-06-23

Afghan and U.S. forces surrounded an area in Afghanistan on Thursday where senior commanders of elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were thought to be hiding, Afghan security officials said. I don't think I'd get my hopes up. Mullah Omar's pretty good at hopping his motorcycle and leaving his loyal minions in the lurch — if it's him they have surrounded in the first place. The operation, backed by U.S. helicopter gunships, followed a big U.S.-backed offensive that killed more than 100 militants in the same region of the border between Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces in the past three days, the officials said. Those holed up in the Dai Chopan area included Mullah Dadullah, a member of the Taliban's 10-man leadership council headed by Omar, and Mullah Brother, another commander thought close to the Taliban leader, the Defence Ministry said. Oh. So it's not Mullah Omar. I don't know anything about the motorcycling skills of the other guys... Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Paiman identified the others as Mullah Abdul Hakim, Mullah Abdul Hanan and Mullah Abdul Basir. Mullah is a title for a Muslim cleric used by many top Taliban members. General Mohammad Muslim Hamid, army commander for the southern region, said the area had been surrounded and the Taliban commanders were believed to be hiding there. Yeah, but I still don't expect great results from surrounding them... General Fateh Khan, another commander taking part in the operation, said it involved Afghan security forces, as well as U.S. helicopter gunships and U.S. ground troops. A U.S. military spokeswoman said she had no information about the operation. Fateh Khan said the Taliban commanders were with more than 150 of their fighters. Is that before or after subtracting the 100 deaders? Fateh Khan said troops were closing in from three sides to try to capture them, which would be a major coup for the government of President Hamid Karzai. Reza Khan, a man sentenced to death last year for killing four journalists in 2001, including two from Reuters, said at his trial Mullah Brother, one of the Taliban commanders believed hiding in the Dai Chopan area, had ordered the killings. The journalists were Australian television cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari of Reuters, Spaniard Julio Fuentes of El Mundo and Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere della Sera. Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said 103 guerrillas had been killed in three days of fighting and the offensive had been a major blow to the Taliban's bid to disrupt Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability. Being dead does tend to disrupt your plans, doesn't it? He said most were killed by U.S. helicopter gunships as they fled Mian Nishin, a district the rebels seized last week, and included three commanders -- Mullah Jamil, Mullah Ghani and Mullah Easa. Sixteen fighters had been captured, he said. Mashal's figure would bring the guerrilla death toll reported by the government and U.S. forces in clashes in the southwest in the past week to more than 153. Hundreds more guerrillas have been reported killed in a surge of clashes this year. Boy, they're gonna depopulate all of Pakistan in a mere 17,576 years at this rate... Three Afghan troops were killed and six U.S. soldiers wounded, while two U.S. helicopters were damaged by ground fire. A U.S. air force pilot was killed when his U-2 spyplane crashed on Wednesday after a mission over Afghanistan. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said on Wednesday seven guerrillas had been killed including Easa. He said no Taliban fighters had been captured.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

'Over 100' Taleban rebels killed

2005-06-23

US and Afghan officials say that more than 100 Taleban fighters have been killed in southern Afghanistan in one of the biggest offensives in two years. Hundreds of Afghan troops backed by US-led coalition forces have taken part in the clashes in Zabul province that started on Tuesday. The Taleban deny having lost any of their men. The government says a number of senior Taleban fighters have been surrounded, Reuters news agency reports. On Tuesday, the pilot of a US spy plane was killed when his aircraft crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates from Afghanistan. It is not clear whether the crash was connected to the ongoing offensive. Most of the fighting has taken place in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, near the border with Kandahar. "We have 103 bodies," Afghan interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal is quoted as saying by Reuters. "All of them were armed. Most were killed by coalition helicopter gunships," he said. A British military spokeswoman, Lt Gemma Fullman, said British planes provided close air support but did not drop any munitions, the AFP news agency reports. Afghan police commander Gen Salim Khan said eight Afghan security force members had died. The US military said five US soldiers had been wounded. Taleban spokesman, Latifullah Hakimi, denied any of the group's fighters had been killed or captured. "No, no, we're ok. Must be somebody else." An Afghan defence ministry spokesman said on Thursday that Afghan forces had some 150 Taleban fighters surrounded, Reuters says. They include a senior Taleban member, Mullah Dadullah. I've lost count of the number of Mullah Dad's we've killed or captured. The fighting began after Afghan and coalition forces were attacked by rebels with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades on Tuesday, according to a US military statement. The forces were patrolling an area south-west of Daychopan near the border with Kandahar province when the attack took place. Tuesday's incident follows a wave of violence earlier this week in which at least 38 rebels were killed in clashes with US-led coalition and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan. The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says doubt has been cast on some of the US military's previous claims about insurgent casualty numbers. But our correspondent says barely a day goes by now without serious violence across south and east Afghanistan, raising fears for security in September's planned parliamentary elections. The US has about 18,000 troops in Afghanistan tackling remnants of the Taleban that was ousted in late 2001. Not mentioning the wave of Arab fighters and Paks imported since. Nearly 400 people have been killed in Taleban-linked violence this year, following a lull over winter - most of them suspected militants but also about 30 US troops. Additional: Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said captured guerrillas had revealed that Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, both members of the Taliban leadership council led by Omar, had been in the area of the fighting at least until Tuesday. "We have concrete reports that they were there until at least the day before yesterday," he said. "They may still be there, they could have escaped, or they could have been killed." Mashal said the men were thought to be key links between the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network as well as with Pakistani militant groups and may even have had direct contacts with bin Laden and his number two Ayman al-Zawahri. Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Paiman said earlier the two were hiding in the Dai Chopan area with three other commanders he named as Mullah Abdul Hakim, Mullah Abdul Hanan and Mullah Abdul Basir. Mullah is a title for a Muslim cleric used by many top Taliban members. General Fateh Khan, a commander taking part in the operation, said they holed up with more than 150 guerrillas. He said Afghan and U.S. troops backed by U.S. helicopter gunships were closing in from three sides to try to capture them, which would be a major coup for the United States and the government of President Hamid Karzai, who came to power after U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

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