BERLIN: German police have arrested a suspected Afghan Taliban ‘commander’ believed to have taken part in an attack on a military convoy about a decade ago in which at least 16 American and Afghan soldiers were killed.

The federal prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that the 30-year old Afghan citizen, identified only as Abdullah P., was arrested in the southern state of Bavaria on March 23 and was being detained during the continuing investigation.

The suspect was believed to have joined the Taliban in 2002 and entered a unit commanded by his father, the statement said. In 2004, he took over the unit and received weapons including an artillery piece, a rocket and several guns.

He was involved in several attacks on foreign and Afg­han soldiers, including one in which a convoy of seven or eight military vehicles was attacked with at least two bombs and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the prosecutors.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2017