Taliban leaders arrested in assault on Afghan town\
KABUL, Dec 9: Afghan and Nato-led forces have captured two senior Taliban commanders during their offensive to retake the insurgents’ most important stronghold in Afghanistan, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
Musa Qala, in the southern province of Helmand, is symbolic for both sides in the conflict in Afghanistan as the only sizeable Afghan town controlled by the Taliban.
US and British forces opened the operation on Friday, described by a British spokesman as “kicking the door in to Musa Qala”.
“The operation from the ISAF perspective is to facilitate the Afghan National Security Forces retaking this district centre,” General Dan McNeill, the commander of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, told reporters.
“Right now it is going according to plan. As to how tough the fighting will or will not be, that is up to the insurgents,” he said. “If the insurgent wants to fight then the Afghan forces going into Musa Qala will be up to the task.”
“During the operation, two Taliban commanders named Mullah Mateen Akhond and Mullah Rahim Akhond have been captured by joint forces,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Mullah Rahim Akhond is the Taliban-appointed governor of Helmand, while Mullah Mateen Akhond is the Taliban district governor of Musa Qala.
The Afghan government appealed to Taliban fighters to lay down their arms. “The Taliban in Musa Qala must put their weapons down and surrender or they will face an offensive by Afghan forces,” the Defence Ministry statement said.
A dozen or more insurgents were killed when Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan army checkpoint on the edge of Musa Qala, McNeill said, and two civilians also died in the crossfire.
Up to 300 civilians have fled the fighting, the Afghan Defence Ministry said, but ISAF commander McNeill said there were still many non-combatants in the centre of Musa Qala.
“We have some photo imagery of Musa Qala district centre that we have been taking on a regular basis and I don’t agree with your premise that a lot of people are vacating it. We have seen some people vacating but not the hordes you suggest,” he said.
A British soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, but it was not clear if the death was connected with the fighting around Musa Qala.
A Taliban spokesman said they had killed more than 30 Nato and Afghan troops and said four Taliban fighters had been killed. Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the Taliban fighters were dug-in in fortified bunkers in Musa Qala and warned of heavy casualties if Nato and Afghan troops attempted a final assault on the town.
After coming under sustained Taliban attacks, British troops pulled out of Musa Qala in October last year in a truce criticised by US commanders that handed control of the town to tribal elders. The Taliban then seized Musa Qala in February.
