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3 Hostage Swap-ees Killed along with Dadullah
Implanted microphone/transmitter/homing devices pay off? Here's hoping the other two swap-ees are visiting Mullah Omar.3 Taliban released for Italian journalist killed with top commander KABUL, Afghanistan: Three Taliban who had been released from prison in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist were killed alongside the insurgency's top field commander over the weekend, the Afghan intelligence service said Wednesday. Mullah Dadullah, a one-legged militant who orchestrated a rash of Taliban suicide attacks and beheadings, died of gunshot wounds in a U.S.-led operation over the weekend in the southern province of Helmand. An official with Afghanistan's intelligence service identified the three others as Mullah Shah Mansoor Dadullah's brother Mullah Hamdullah and Commander Ghafar. They had been freed in March in a prisoner swap for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. The prisoner swap was widely criticized in Afghanistan in part because two Afghans kidnapped with Mastrogiacomo were not freed as part of that deal and were executed by the Taliban. U.S.-led coalition forces, with assistance from NATO and Afghan forces, were able to track Dadullah to the village of Sarwan using "modern technology," said the official, reading an intelligence service statement. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the agency's policy. In Islamabad, Ronald Neumann, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, predicted the Taliban leadership would "regenerate" after Dadullah's death, but said the recent demise of several top figures in the insurgency could dissuade others from joining the fight. Neumann, who stepped down as ambassador last month, mentioned the killing of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan in December and the arrest of former Taliban defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund. Neumann's was the first official confirmation of reports from Pakistani intelligence that Akhund was nabbed in the Pakistani city of Quetta in February. He gave no further details, including who was holding Akhund, the highest-ranking Taliban militant to be captured alive since the fall of the Islamist regime in 2001. "For those Taliban leaders who have been out of the fight and are looking to get back into the fight, the fact that Osmani has been killed, Dadullah has been killed and Obaidullah has been arrested might say something to them about their life insurance policies," said Neumann, visiting Pakistan for talks on Afghanistan. In Kabul, Lt. Col. Maria Carl, spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said Dadullah's killing would not have been possible without the help of Afghan civilians and security forces, whose intelligence helped track him down, but gave no details on the nature of the intelligence. NATO has said that Dadullah was killed after he moved into Afghanistan from his "sanctuary" a reference to Pakistan, where many Taliban are thought to hide. Another ISAF spokesman, Maj. John Thomas, declined to say if Pakistan provided any intelligence that helped in the operation. Security officials in Pakistan have hinted that a bombing Tuesday that killed 25 people in a restaurant in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar may have been revenge for Dadullah's killing. They said a relative of Dadullah was arrested in the restaurant a few days earlier. Posted by: Glenmore 2007-05-16 |
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