Taliban commander killed in northern Afghanistan

Jul 1, 2009, 12:13 GMT

   Kabul - A key Taliban commander was killed in northern Afghanistan when militants attacked a NATO convoy as Afghan and foreign troops conducted an operation to clear an area of militants, officials said Wednesday.

   Mullah Nader was killed late Tuesday in the Darzab district of Jawzjan province during the two-hour clearing operation by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan soldiers, provincial police chief Muhammad Khalil Aminzada said.

   He said the commander was behind the killings of government officials in a nearby district four months ago. Ten officials, including the district chief and police chief, of the Qoshtipa district were killed in an ambush by the Taliban.

   Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a Taliban fighter was killed in a clash that erupted after militants attacked a joint NATO and Afghan convoy. He did not give the name of the killed Taliban member.

   The Taliban spokesman claimed that four NATO soldiers and five Afghan soldiers were also killed in the attack. He said the four NATO soldiers were Germans.

   However, the NATO-led ISAF said it suffered no casualties. An ISAF statement said alliance forces killed a Taliban commander in Jawzjan as the militants attacked a convoy of Swedish and Finnish troops.

   The forces called for air support and consequently a militant was killed and two more were injured, the ISAF statement said.

   The Swedish and Finnish troops were unharmed in the fighting that lasted about an hour, it said.

   Bordering Uzbekistan, Jawzjan is a relatively peaceful Afghan province, but a week ago, two aid workers were killed there in a roadside bombing.

   The Taliban have stepped up their attacks in recent months across Afghanistan with the violence spreading to the relatively peaceful north as the country moves closer to the August presidential election.

   Elsewhere, at least one police officer was killed and three were wounded as the Taliban attacked a World Food Programme convoy in the western province of Herat, police said.

   Noor Khan Nikzad, a local police spokesman, said the Taliban attacked an aid convoy carrying food from Herat city to the Kushk-e-Kuhna district late Tuesday, resulting in the casualties among the police protecting the vehicles.

   The Taliban said they killed seven police in the attack.

   Western Afghanistan is another relatively peaceful part of the country, but the attack marked a further spread of the Taliban insurgency.

   The summer has seen Afghanistan's fiercest fighting in the past four years.