Taliban commander caught, Afghan rebel toll nears 200 

5-19-2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) 

Afghan police officers inspect the site of a suicide attack as the remains of a vehicle smolders on a road of Herat. A "very important" Taliban commander was captured during two days of fierce fighting in southern Afghanistan that has left nearly 200 rebels dead, officials have said.  

A "very important" Taliban commander was captured during two days of fierce fighting in southern Afghanistan that has left nearly 200 rebels dead, officials have said. The identity of the man caught in Kandahar province could not be released on security grounds, provincial governor Assadullah Khalid said, after reports he was Mullah Dadullah, credited as one of the masterminds of the Taliban insurgency launched nearly five years ago. 

The man was badly wounded in a battle in Kandahar's Panjwayi fought by Taliban rebels who had come from across Afghanistan, Khalid told reporters Friday. Around 100 were killed, he said, upping a previous figure of 18. The US-led coalition helping to fight Taliban rebels announced meanwhile that 60 "enemy" were killed in a separate battle on Wednesday in neighbouring Helmand province. Afghan officials had said about 40 were killed. 

The new tolls took past 190 the number of insurgents killed in two days of clashes between security forces and Taliban rebels in some of the heaviest fighting since the regime was toppled in 2001 by a US-led invasion. More than 25 Afghan security forces and civilians were also killed in the violence, which included two suicide blasts Thursday that counted a US citizen and an Afghan national among their victims. 

The battle in Panjwayi erupted Wednesday when Afghan security forces went to the area on information that Taliban had massed there. The fighting raged into Thursday and was supported by coalition artillery and planes. A Canadian soldier was killed, becoming the first Canadian woman to die in combat since World War II, according to the country's military. Six policemen, three Afghan soldiers and three civilians also died in the fighting, Khalid told reporters. 

"We captured a very important Taliban member but due to security reasons we cannot reveal his identity," Khalid added. A top military official said earlier the captured man may be the one-legged Dadullah, who is close to the fugitive leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, and has announced he has links with Al-Qaeda. "During the fighting in (Kandahar's) Panjwayi district we have detained a person who is badly wounded and in a coma and he has got one leg," the general told AFP on condition of anonymity. 

"Now we are investigating to determine whether it is Dadullah or not. From the facial features of this person, it seems that he may be Dadullah but we are not sure," he said. A purported Taliban spokesman contacted by AFP denied Dadullah had been captured. "I spoke to him three minutes ago," Mohammed Hanif said. Besides the battles in Kandahar and Helmand, security forces and Taliban clashed in northern Kandahar and in southern Ghazni province. 

A suicide bomb struck Ghazni city Thursday, killing a civilian, and another exploded in western Herat city the same day, killed a US national helping to train the police force. Both blasts were claimed by the Taliban. The dramatic spike in fighting comes weeks before NATO peacekeepers are due to assume command of the hostile and largely lawless south, which sees regular attacks blamed on the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies. 

President Hamid Karzai charged Thursday that those behind the almost daily bloodshed were being trained in religious schools in neighbouring Pakistan, an allegation long made by Afghan officials. His statement was echoed by Colonel Chris Vernon, chief of staff for British forces in southern Afghanistan, who said in a British newspaper that Taliban militants were launching attacks in Afghanistan from its side of the border. Pakistan angrily rejected the allegations on Friday