A key Taleban commander was captured and four Taleban militants were killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan in the latest violence before parliamentary elections, the US military said yesterday. Afghan security forces backed by US troops in a raid on Saturday captured Qari Baba, former governor of Ghazni province under the hard-line Taleban regime, said US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry OâHara. Qari Baba had been leading attacks against US troops and the Afghan government in the southeastern province of Ghazni. The National Security Directorate âled the raid and coalition forces worked together to detain Qari Baba at his home in an operation that was a success for all concerned,â OâHara said.A weapons cache of 16 AK-47s, several machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades and launchers, cell phones and a large amount of ammunition was discovered in his house in Andar district, he said. On Friday, three insurgents were killed and two Afghan National Police were wounded in a firefight near the town of Deh Rawood in the southern province of Uruzgan, the US military said in a statement. The battle broke out after Afghan and US forces, patrolling in the area, came into contact with an unknown number of âenemy combatantsâ near the town which has been a hotbed for Taleban activity, it said. The same day one âenemy combatantâ was killed in another attack by seven to 10 militants on an Afghan-US military convoy south of Kabul, the statement said.
Hundreds of American Marines and Afghan special forces trekked far into remote Afghan mountains to retake a valley controlled by militants suspected of ambushing a team of US commandos and shooting down a special forces helicopter. The major offensive Saturday in eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, is the biggest yet against those believed responsible for the twin attacks on June 28, the deadliest blow for American forces in Afghanistan since ousting the Taleban in 2001.