seruriermarshal
02-14-2005, 08:33 PM
Afghans Detain Alleged Taliban Commander
Mon Feb 14, 2:05 PM ET World - AP Asia
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suspected Taliban commander has been detained in central Afghanistan (news - web sites) by security forces who handed him over to the U.S. military, an official said Monday.
Mullah Mohammed Naeem surrendered Friday after Afghan troops surrounded a house near Deh Rawood in Uruzgan province after receiving a tip, Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said. "The troops searched the house and eventually found him in the well," he said.
Naeem was appointed by Mullah Brader, a senior leader of the former ruling Taliban, to run operations in Uruzgan and was responsible for several attacks on American and Afghan troops in the region, Khan claimed.
Uruzgan has been a focal point of the insurgency waged mainly by Taliban holdouts across southern and eastern Afghanistan, despite the presence of two American firebases and regular offensives.
It is also one of the main growing regions for Afghanistan's illegal narcotics industry, the world's largest.
As part of efforts to rein in trafficking in opium, the governor of neighboring Helmand province said Monday his forces had seized more than half a ton of opium in a raid.
Intelligence agents found about 1,200 pounds of opium, enough to make about 130 pounds of heroin, in a market near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Sunday, Gov. Sher Mohammed Akhundzada said.
Akhundzada said authorities started destroying opium poppy crops in the province a month ago, but said he didn't know how much would be produced this year.
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From (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=10&u=/ap/20050214/ap_on_re_as/afghan_taliban_arrest)
Mon Feb 14, 2:05 PM ET World - AP Asia
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suspected Taliban commander has been detained in central Afghanistan (news - web sites) by security forces who handed him over to the U.S. military, an official said Monday.
Mullah Mohammed Naeem surrendered Friday after Afghan troops surrounded a house near Deh Rawood in Uruzgan province after receiving a tip, Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said. "The troops searched the house and eventually found him in the well," he said.
Naeem was appointed by Mullah Brader, a senior leader of the former ruling Taliban, to run operations in Uruzgan and was responsible for several attacks on American and Afghan troops in the region, Khan claimed.
Uruzgan has been a focal point of the insurgency waged mainly by Taliban holdouts across southern and eastern Afghanistan, despite the presence of two American firebases and regular offensives.
It is also one of the main growing regions for Afghanistan's illegal narcotics industry, the world's largest.
As part of efforts to rein in trafficking in opium, the governor of neighboring Helmand province said Monday his forces had seized more than half a ton of opium in a raid.
Intelligence agents found about 1,200 pounds of opium, enough to make about 130 pounds of heroin, in a market near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah on Sunday, Gov. Sher Mohammed Akhundzada said.
Akhundzada said authorities started destroying opium poppy crops in the province a month ago, but said he didn't know how much would be produced this year.
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From (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=10&u=/ap/20050214/ap_on_re_as/afghan_taliban_arrest)