Posted on 01/16/2007 9:45:27 PM PST by NormsRevenge
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO-led troops and Afghan forces detained a prominent Taliban commander during a raid at a compound in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement Wednesday.
The commander, whom NATO did not name, was captured in Gereshk district in Helmand province late Tuesday and is the first Taliban leader captured by NATO-led and Afghan troops, NATO said.
The captured militant is wanted for questioning by Afghan security forces and managed to flee the latest offensive operation by Afghan and foreign security forces in southern Afghanistan, the statement said.
"This seizure of a Taliban commander once again shows that there is nowhere to hide for insurgent leaders," said Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, a NATO spokesman.
The operation came a day after Afghan agents arrested Mohammad Hanif, a purported militant spokesman as he crossed through an international border checkpoint from Pakistan.
Hanif, one of two spokesmen who would often contact journalists on behalf of the militia, was arrested at the border town of Torkham on Monday, said Sayed Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service. Two people traveling with him also were detained, he said.
Last month, a U.S.-led coalition airstrike also killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, a key associate of Taliban chief Mullah Omar and the highest-ranking Taliban leader killed by the U.S.-led coalition since the invasion of Afghanistan that ousted the hardline regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden.
Over the past year, the Taliban have launched a record number of attacks, and some 4,000 people, most of them militants, have died in the insurgency-related violence, according to a tally by The Associated Press based on reports from Afghan, NATO and coalition officials.
Two Afghan civilians working for the U.S. military, meanwhile, thwarted an attack on a U.S. military base in Kabul on Tuesday, a statement from the U.S. military said.
Initially NATO said that it had thwarted an attack at a base several miles away from where Defense Secretary Robert Gates was holding meetings with Afghan and U.S. military officials.
But in a later statement, the U.S. military said that an Afghan security guard and an interpreter, with help from U.S. forces, detained the bomber who tried to crash the front gate of the camp in his explosives-filled car, the statement said.
"Together, the two prevented the driver from detonating his explosives after they failed to explode during the crash," it said.
Ordnance experts tried to disarm the devices found in the car but they exploded prematurely, injuring a number of Afghan civilians, Afghan officials said.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, shakes hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during their joint news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007. (AP photo/Xinhua, Zabi Tamanna)
It's great to see AP report some good news for a change without distorting it.
Good news except for one thing: We should not be arresting these people.
fyi
The article speaks of the guy being detained, and being captured, not arrested. Much more appropriate for the war that this affair is. I hope he's also "interrogated", not merely "questioned". In fact I'm sure he will be.
Not quite correct. But only the "spokesman" was arrested, the commander was captured.
Don't bring him to Gitmo. Don't bring anymore of these a$$wipes to Gitmo. Keep them in the dark former Taliban dungeons of hell in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
You're absolutely right. Some stiff interrogation and then a firing squad would send a message to others.
"Terminate with extreme prejudice."
"I agree... shooting them on sight is much more efficient."
I disagree. Torturing them until every piece of information is out of them is the appropriate thing to do. Then shoot them.
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