Five Afghan force members killed, Taliban leaders arrested

Mar 31, 2007, 7:55 GMT

Kabul - Afghan and NATO forces arrested four suspected Taliban leaders in separate raids, while five members of the Afghan forces and several Taliban fighters including their commanders were killed in operations in various parts of the country, officials said Saturday.

Taliban attacked an Afghan police patrol in southern Uruzgan province on Thursday, killing five Afghan security forces and taking another hostage another, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force(ISAF)said in a statement.

Afghan and ISAF troops conducted an operation and rescued the captured police who was also wounded during the firefight, the statement said, but it did not say if there was any casualty on the Taliban side.

Meanwhile, in a raid in southern Kandahar province on Friday night, joint Afghan and ISAF forces arrested three suspected Taliban, who were involved in the assassination of Mullah Naqibullah, a tribal Afghan man in early March, ISAF said in a statement.

'During the early morning raid, Taj Mohammed, his brother Raz Mohammed and another well known insurgent, Bacha Aka were captured,' the statement said, adding that the individuals were handed over to Afghan intelligence for interrogation.

Mullah Naqibullah, a former Mujahideen Commander and an influential local tribal elder, was attacked by a group of Taliban in Arghandab district of Kandahar province earlier this month. He survived the attack, but one of his sons and an assistant were killed, while his two other sons suffered severe injuries.

In a separate raid on Wednesday, ISAF forces conducted a precision airstrike against a Taliban compound in the Kajaki district of southern Helmand province, killing several insurgents during the strike including key Taliban leaders, the statement said.

These latest strikes were part of Operation Achilles, an operation launched earlier this month by some 4,500 ISAF and 1,000 Afghan soldiers, which is mainly aimed at Helmand province where Taliban fighters are most entrenched.

'The Taliban extremist leadership in the south has been taken off guard by Operation Achilles and is on the defensive at this stage,' Major General Ton van Loon, ISAF Commander of Southern region was quoted in the statement as saying.

'We have inflicted serious damage to their command and control infrastructure as well as their ability to resupply,' Loon said.

Meanwhile, a group 25 Taliban attacked Sar Hawzeh district centre of eastern Paktika Province on Friday, a separate ISAF statement said.

Afghan police fought back and made the Taliban retreat, the statement said, adding the militants took hostage an Afghan policeman while fleeing the area.

Afghan forces later arrested a Taliban commander by the name of Engineer Majeed who was shot twice during the firefight and was left behind by the Taliban fighters in a local clinic.

Majeed, 'is a known Taliban sub commander, who has actively threatened the local populace and attacked both ISAF and ANSF security forces' in Paktika province which has a long border with neighbouring Pakistan.

Afghan and ISAF air forces continued to pursue the enemy in the surrounding mountains and search for the missing Afghan soldier, the statement added.