GHAZNI: Ali Akbar Qasmi claims he does not work for the money. But he has not turned down the $40,000 a head that he says the US government pays him for turning over senior Taliban leaders and Al Qaeda members. “We do it because we have promised the Americans that we will fight with them,” Commander Qasmi says.

Like hundreds of other Afghan volunteer hunters, Qasmi is gunning for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. He hopes to feed into America’s effort to rout remaining militants in eastern Afghanistan. “We have a few pockets of resistance remaining that we’re dealing with,” Maj-Gen Henry Stratman said on Friday.

There have been several reports - all un-confirmed - that a missile fired by an unmanned US aircraft on Monday killed several Al Qaeda members, including one leader. Bad weather in the mountainous region of Paktia Province has prevented locals from getting to the site.

Near to the Ziarat, an Al Qaeda training base West of town, several Taliban gunmen stared down the Hazara fighters, their fingers twitching on Kalashnikovs. “If we move closer, they’ll open up on us,” says the Hazara commander, who decided to back off because of the reporter accompanying the group. Qasmi says his normal routine is that when he and his men spot large groups of Arabs - as they did the other day while patrolling near the village or Qarah Bagh - they do some quick math. “It takes five of my guys to successfully capture one Arab,” he says. “That is because they almost always fight to the death.”

The most lucrative catch by far - worth $80,000 to his small army - came late last year when the Hazara commander arranged through a local Taliban source to have Mullah Wasiq, the militia’s deputy intelligence chief, over to dinner. In exchange for turning the men in, Qasmi claims he received $80,000 in cash from his American friends.

With the money, he bought two used pickup trucks, supplies, and food. He denies that he hunts Al Qaeda or Taliban only for the money. He says the $80,000 wa not even enough to buy his fighters new coats and feed them.

He points out that the local price that Al Qaeda has put on the head of an American - $50,000 - is still more than the $40,000 that the Americans are offering for senior Taliban leaders and Al Qaeda fighters. “Just for the prisoners I’m holding, Al Qaeda is offering me - through their channels here in Ghazni - $10,000 each,” he claims. —Dawn/LATS Service (c) Christian Science Monitor.