Newspaper: US spy hid Dadullah's artificial leg during NATO attack

May 17, 2007, 10:43 GMT

Islamabad - The Taliban have arrested an aide to Mullah Dadullah who allegedly not only provided information to US forces that led to the militant commander's death in Afghanistan but also hid his artificial leg as troops closed in, a Pakistani newspaper said Thursday.

'We have captured Din Mohammed, an American spy who played a key role in trapping Mullah Dadullah,' an unnamed Taliban commander told Pakistan's The News in a telephone interview.

The Taliban's chief military strategist died Friday in a US-led operation with about 10 of his men in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand.

The Taliban commander claimed that Mohammed, a trusted friend of Dadullah, had confessed that he had spied for the Americans.

'He had several meetings with American army officials at their military air base in Kandahar, where he was assigned the task of trapping Dadullah,' the commander said.

As more than 300 US, NATO and Afghan forces closed in on the village of Brahmcha, Mohammed removed the sleeping Dadullah's artificial left leg to ensure he did not flee, the commander said.

'When American and Afghan army forces attacked the house, Dadullah was searching for his leg while his men started fighting,' the Taliban commander told the newspaper.

According to conflicting versions, Dadullah lost his leg either after stepping on a mine near the western Afghan city of Herat in the mid-1990s or while fighting in Kabul around the same time.

Mohammed spent the night in a wheat field near Brahmcha after Dadullah died of bullet wounds to the head and chest, the Taliban commander said.

When the fighting ended, Taliban members moved his body to another place and were preparing to bury him when US helicopters mounted an airstrike on the area, allegedly also acting on a tip-off by Mohammed. They later removed the body, he said.

Dadullah's body, minus the left leg, was displayed Sunday by Afghan government officials in neighbouring Kandahar province.

Dadullah was a member of the Taliban's 10-member leadership council. International security forces termed his death a 'serious blow' to the insurgents.