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Head
Of Taliban Intelligence Killed
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| U.S.
soldiers watch an explosion at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan |
KABUL, Dec. 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)
– Qari Ahmadullah, the head of intelligence under the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan, has been killed.
"Qari Ahmadullah has been killed by U.S.
bombs in Zadran district of Khost province," said Abdullah Tawheedi, a
deputy head of intelligence in the new interim administration told CNN
Wednesday.
Tawheedi said the death occurred two or three
days ago. He said people had identified the body, and Ahmadullah's remains had
been buried in his hometown in Ghazni province.
Tawheedi also said Ahmadullah was in the home
of Mullah Taha, a well known Taliban commander, when the house was hit by U.S.
bombs. He said two of Taha's sons were also killed, but Taha himself was not
injured.
"This area belonged to the Al Qaeda
network and the Taliban," Tawheedi said. Taha's current whereabouts are not
known, he added.
Tawheedi said he had received reports that
another well-known Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, had been
killed in the same raid. But he said he had no independent confirmation of this
report.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine force returned to
Kandahar early Wednesday after searching a compound in northwestern Afghanistan
where Taliban leader Mohammed Omar may have stayed.
The contingent of about 200 U.S. Marines
returned to their base at Kandahar's airport after a 30-hour expedition that
included a search of a walled compound in Helmand province, west of the city.
The compound, described as a massive complex with at least 14 separate
buildings, is located in Helmand province, just west of the Marines' Kandahar
base.
They were accompanied on the mission by anti-Taliban
Afghan fighters, who said Omar is believed to have abandoned the compound
sometime in the last three weeks. The Marines said they did not encounter any
hostile fire and described the search as a good one, although few other details
were given.
Military sources have said they believe Omar is
hiding in the Baghran area of Helmand Province along with other Taliban
fighters.
While
the Marines were conducting their operation, U.S. Special Forces soldiers were
working with local anti-Taliban forces, under the command of Kandahar Governor,
Gul Agha Shirzai, to persuade 1,500 Taliban fighters in Baghran to hand over
their weapons. Shirzai said he wants the Taliban fighters to surrender within
five days.
On
another front, officers from 17 countries arrived Wednesday in Kabul to pave the
way for an international security force.
Twenty
to 30 officers and other personnel arrived in Kabul with a first detachment of
around 20 French troops to join an advance party of the British-led force
providing security for the new Afghan interim government.
Over
the coming weeks, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is expected
to grow to 4,500-strong, British officials in Kabul said, Agence-France Presse (AFP)
reported.
For
the first three months, it will be led by Britain before being taken over by the
Turks for the rest of its six-month mandate.
Afghanistan's
interim leader, Hamid Karzai, who was installed as head of a U.N.-backed
power-sharing government on December 22, welcomed the arrival of the force,
which he said should fan out around the country.
So
far, the ISAF has been restricted to operating in and around Kabul, but in an
interview with the New York Times, the Pashtun former mujahedin commander said
there had been requests for peacekeepers from all over Afghanistan.
Since the collapse of the Taliban, the main goal of the U.S.-led coalition
fighting in Afghanistan has been to capture Omar and Osama bin Laden, who has
been accused by the U.S. as having masterminded the September 11 attacks.
U.S.
forces have apparently been without news of Bin Laden, the head of the Al-Qaeda
network, since his fighters were driven from their mountain strongholds in
eastern Afghanistan last month.
Since then, their campaign has been blighted by two apparent bombing
“errors” in which up to 160 Afghan civilians were killed, leading to calls
last week from some Afghan officials for a rapid end to air raids.
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