#8 StrategyPage
September 11, 2006: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the primary Islamic terrorist leader in Afghanistan before the Taliban and al Qaeda showed up, was captured just across the border from his Pakistani hideout. Someone gave him up, as Afghan and U.S. forces surrounded the rural compound where he was staying, and captured Hekmatyar and half a dozen followers without firing a shot. Operating from his base in Pakistan, Hekmatyar's terrorists were responsible for much of the violence in eastern Afghanistan. Hekmatyar never got along well with the Taliban, and has been in exile in Pakistan for over a decade.
Other than this, and it may be from the same Deutsche Presse source, I am not seeing any other confirmations. WaPo has this:
The U.S. military also said American and Afghan soldiers arrested eight suspected terrorists belonging to the radical Hezb-e-Islami group of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the al-Qaida network of Osama bin Laden.
...
U.S. and Afghan soldiers also arrested two men suspected of being midlevel commanders of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group in the Khost province area of Gorcak, the coalition said in a statement.
One of the men was a suspected bomb-making expert who was allegedly linked to attacks in the Shembawot Bazaar village in Gurbuz district, a May bombing of an Afghan army checkpoint in Khulbesat and the July murder of an Afghan army lieutenant colonel.
Seven militants, including a commander of the Hezb-e-Islami group, were arrested Monday in eastern Nangarhar province, the U.S. military said. No details were available on their identities. |
In an operation launched by Afghan coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan, a known al-Qaeda facilitator and six other suspected al-Qaeda associates were detained, coalition forces said. The commander of the Hizb-i-Islami militia in Hafezan in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Gulbuddin Hikmatyar, was arrested after credible intelligence led Afghan and coalition forces to his compound, the statement said. No shots were fired and there were no injuries reported.