American troops in southeast Afghanistan have seized two people suspected of links to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is on a US list of wanted terrorists, a US military spokesman said yesterday. A Special Forces patrol near Gardez, 100 kilometers south of Kabul, on Tuesday "took two people under control believed to be associated with the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar group," US Air Force Lt. Col. Douglas Lefforge told reporters. The same patrol also found land mine booby traps near Gardez, capital of Paktia province which borders Pakistan, but Lefforge said the two detainees were not connected with them.
| "Nope. They were connected with a completely different set of land mines..." |
Lefforge said the two were identified as being associated with Hekmatyar from photographs or documents relating to his extremist group. He was unable to say whether they were important captives. |