3 Taliban held in US-led operation

Published March 15, 2004

SPIN BOLDAK, March 14: Three Taliban commanders have been arrested in a US-led sweep of southeastern Afghanistan aimed at crushing members of the former regime and their Al Qaeda allies, an Afghan army officer said on Sunday.

Rebels fired three rockets into the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday, wounding two people, including a child, police said. Two more rockets landed in Kabul on Saturday evening, but caused no damage or injuries.

The three Taliban commanders were arrested on Friday in a raid in Zabul province in a joint US-Afghan operation, said General Fateh Khan, an Afghan army officer based in the southeast of the country.

US-led forces were hunting a former Taliban provincial governor, Mulla Abdul Razzaq, when they caught the three, identified as Mulla Naimatullah, Mulla Saleh Mohammad and Mulla Baloch.

Many weapons were seized in the raid, Khan said. In a separate battle in the same area, about 60 Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan army base near the Pakistan border on Friday night.

One soldier was killed and two were wounded. Three of the attackers were killed before they withdrew towards Pakistani territory, said a Kandahar police officer. -Reuters

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