(AKI) - A rebel commander, has laid down his arms in western Badghis province. Mullah Salam said he decided to renounce militancy, accusing Taliban fighters of targeting civilians, Afghan news agency Pajhwok reported. Badghis police chief Brig. Gen. Syed Ahmad Sami, told Pajhwok that Salam surrendered with an ally named Mullah Bahauddin.
The commander handed over to police personnel an RPG-7, a rocket launcher and a machine gun. Salam was a sub-commander of Maulvi Abdul Qudoos, the Taliban commander in Dara-i-Bum area of Badghis' Maqur district.
Anti-terrorism officials have remained in contact with other Taliban fighters who are allegedly on the point of switching sides, Gen. Sami said.
Also on Monday, police said they killed a militant and injured two others in an hour-long firefight in southern Ghazni province. But insurgents claimed one of their fighters and four policemen were killed in the gun-battle, which took place on the main Kabul-Kandahar Highway.
In the western province of Herat, three people were arrested on Monday when police found explosives in their truck in Injeel district.
The explosives had been concealed along with four remote-controlled bombs under materials in the truck.
The fighters were shifting the explosives from the volatile south to Herat City, police said.
Also on Monday, a roadside bomb hit a vehicle belonging to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Adraskan district. The explosives placed in a jerry can hit the ISAF vehicle but no one was hurt, district chief Nisar Ahmad Popal said.
But Qari Jamal, who introduced himself as a local Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the vehicle was destroyed and all those on board were killed, Pajhwok reported.