By Nadeem Shaker, IOL Afghanistan Correspondent

JALALABAD, August 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. forces in Afghanistan launched a search and arrest campaign on Monday, August 26, in the eastern state of Konar, where many elites were arrested.

This comes one day after IslamOnline published a letter attributed to Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man. This also came after news of communication between the Afghani leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Al-Qaeda, headed by Bin Laden, aiming to reestablish the movement and to expel Americans from the country.

Earlier on Thursday, August 22, U.S. forces arrested five Jihad leaders and elite members in Konar. Among them was Haji Rohullah, head of the Political committee of the Call for Quran and Sunna Group and member of the Afghani national council, the Loya Jirga. Also arrested were: Sabr Laal, a leader in Konar, Haji Othman, head of the tribe, Haji Abdul Qayoum and Haji Zabrost Khan.

Their arrest was confirmed by the office of the Call for Qur’an and Sunna Group.

Speaking to IslamOnline over the phone from the Pakistani border city of Bajour, Naqeebullah, brother of Haji Rohullah said that he (Rohullah), went to Jalalabad upon the invitation of government officials from the states of Nangarhar and Laghman in order to study the security and economic situation in the eastern states (Nangarhar, Konar and Laghman).

On Thursday, the chief of the U.S. forces in Konar asked to meet Rohullah and brought him to the Surkano camp in Konar. “As soon as he arrived, the U.S. forces arrested them and transferred them by a U.S. helicopter to the Bagram airport,” he said.

Naqeebullah added that a large delegation consisting of the elites in Konar and Bajour went to Kabul to meet with the head of the interim government and to tell him of the situation.

Responding to a question on the reasons for their arrest he said: “We don’t know any reason. Haji Rohullah supported the interim government and has good relations with the head of the government and the ministers and he is working for the good of the Afghani people.

“He has worked very hard to stabilize the situation and solve problems in the state of Konar and he is helping the government as well as the United Nations in their mission to destroy the opium fields in the eastern states. He was also an elected member in the Loya Jirga representing Konar.”

Sources told IslamOnline that the mayor of Konar, Sayed Mohamad Youssef and the field leader Jandad, went to Kabul to study Rohullah’s situation and his companions’ arrest because the residents of Konar have started to panic and be frightened of these sudden arrests.

IslamOnline has learned from sources in the interim government in Kabul that they have discovered a chemistry laboratory belonging to Al-Qaeda in one of the houses in the area of Wazeer Akbar Khan in Kabul.

The security forces forcefully entered the laboratory and seized 16 kinds of chemicals and explosive material as well as some documents, the source said, refusing to say what the contents of the documents were.

He added that the house in which the laboratory was found, was also an office for the Saudi charity organization Al-Wafaa, which was established in the last few years by the Taliban government and worked in the fields of relief and construction. This organization has been listed on the U.S. terrorist blacklist.

The house was evacuated after the fall of the Taliban, but according to a government official, some people have started to revisit the house recently to restart creating the explosives.

The Saudi Al-Watan newspaper reported Monday, August 26, quoting Mohammad Eida Al-Mutrafi, member of Al Wafaa and brother of the organization’s manager Abdullah denying any links of Al Wafaa to Al-Qaeda.

Al-Mutrafi added that the organization will sue the U.S. government for compensation for damage inflicted on the organization’s offices in Kabul.

He also said that the compensation lawsuit will also be raised for Saudi citizens who worked in the company and who were killed during the U.S. raids on Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the peacekeeping forces in the Afghani capital, Kabul, said that an explosion on Monday rocked the center of the city, a few hours after another explosion took place late Sunday close to the hotel housing United Nations personnel.

On Monday Major Steve Odell, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said there had been “five significant explosions” in Kabul over the past 10 days.

In addition to Sunday night’s blast, a bomb had recently been detonated outside the ministry for communications, while another had exploded close to a cinema in Kabul.

Odell said the bombs were “not designed to wound or cause significant damage, but more to make noise because they consisted of only small amounts of explosive and had been detonated where there were few people.”

U.S.-led coalition troops on Monday, wrapped up their week-long “Operation Mountain Sweep” in Paktia Province bordering Pakistan, after coming under fire twice and detaining 10 people in southeast Afghanistan.

The operation involved more than 2,000 coalition troops from seven infantry companies, special forces and Afghan soldiers, a U.S. military statement said.

The objective was “to find and destroy remaining al-Qaeda elements in that area, search for weapons or usable data, and ... to deny the enemy sanctuary there.”

But despite five air raids and the advancing of the ground troops three times in the south east of Afghanistan, the operation did not cause any direct damages for its targets.

Speaking on behalf of ISAF, Col. Roger King said that they discovered five separate weapons caches, along with two caches of Taliban documents.

The Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said that there are Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the north east of Afghanistan. In a press statement on Monday he said: “I think Mullah Omar and Bin Laden are in the northeast and there are many possibilities that terrorist attacks will be carried out. It will not be easy to get rid of these terrorist organizations in the near future, but we are nevertheless trying.”