 Afghan security forces have captured three Taliban commanders in a week of clashes that killed about 100 people, officials said overnight. But they did not confirm a BBC report that feared Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah had been caught. An Afghan general said a wounded Taliban prisoner was suspected to be Dadullah. About 100 people were killed in violence that began on Wednesday. It included a large attack on a town in the southern province of Helmand and two suicide blasts elsewhere.
| Pak Daily Times puts the corpse count at 200. I can live with that. |
There was also heavy fighting in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, in the Panjwai district 25 km (16 miles) west of the provincial capital.
| Maybe that's where the other hundred dropped. |
The province's governor told a news conference three senior Taliban members had been caught in the Kandahar fighting but he declined to identify them or say if Dadullah was among them. "We've arrested three high-ranking Taliban, members of their leadership council," said the governor, Assadullah Khalid.
| Well, how about some other names, then? |
The one-legged Dadullah is a member of the Taliban's 10-man leadership council and is regarded as close to fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. His capture would be a major coup for U.S. and NATO forces and the government of President Hamid Karzai, who came to power after the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001. There have been several erroneous reports that he had captured or surrounded in the past.
| Most of them are archived here. |
The Taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and government forces in recent months as thousands more NATO peacekeepers arrive in the country.
| They're hoping the NATO troops aren't as good as the Americans... |
Foreign commanders say the Taliban want to sap domestic support for the deployments, which will push the number of foreign troops to nearly 40,000, the most since 2001. The fighting this week was some of the heaviest since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001.
| It wasn't, however, the most successful. Well, maybe it was, but that's only because they have an unbroken string of abject failures. What's the Pashto word for "looooooooser"? |
Khalid said dozens of insurgents, including some foreigners, had been killed in the Kandahar clashes. Many Taliban had been wounded and dozens captured, he said. The BBC said Mullah Dadullah was captured by international troops near Kandahar. Foreign military officials said they could not confirm the report. General Rahmatullah Raufi, Afghan army commander in the south, said a seriously wounded one-legged man had been caught.
| Oh, well then, it's probably him. |
"We can't say for sure it is Mullah Dadullah. Mullah Dadullah has only one leg and this guy has only one leg, but we suspect it's him," Raufi told Reuters.
| I suspect it's a much-feared local commander named Mullah Stumpi. |
A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that Dadullah had not been captured. He said he had spoken to Dadullah by radio on Friday.
| That means nothing, either. The Chechens spoke to Khattab by radio a day or two after he was dead. Afghan Islamic Press never has been the most reliable of sources. |
Taliban stormed Mosa Qala town in Helmand province on Wednesday evening and fighting raged until Thursday. Thirteen policemen and some 50 insurgents were killed, said Helmand's deputy governor, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada. Forces scoured the area on Friday, hunting down insurgents, he said.
| Notice they didn't attack the army. Officer Friendly's not trained as a soldier, so the odds are a little more even. |
Afghanistan and the United States say the Taliban benefit from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the lawless border.
Pakistan, fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants in its tribal border lands, rejected a fresh accusation by Karzai that Pakistan was supporting the Taliban.
| Pakistan not only has a problem with the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, but all of the fingers of both hands being uncertain about the others. |
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