KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) A suspected Taliban commander
responsible for roadside bomb attacks on Afghan and U.S.-led
coalition troops has been arrested in southern Afghanistan, an
Afghan commander said Thursday.
Mullah Abdul Razak was handed over to coalition forces after
being caught traveling in a taxi when troops at a checkpoint
recognized his face from a list of photographs of wanted suspects,
army commander Gen. Muslim Amid said.
Razak is the alleged Taliban leader in Arghandab district, just
north of Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan and a
former rebel stronghold, he said.
The suspected insurgent commander was caught Wednesday in
possession of letters, threatening to kill villagers if they
cooperate with President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government, he
said.
''He is a key figure in the Taliban and responsible for
terrorist activities,'' Amid said without elaborating.
Two men named Mullah Abdul Razak held senior positions in the
Taliban regime before it was ousted in 2001. One was the police
chief of the capital, Kabul, while the other was the interior
minister. Neither has been caught, but Amid said it did not appear
that either was the arrested man.
He said investigators were still trying to determine Razak's
position in the Taliban, but it was not believed that he was in the
inner circle of the group's fugitive leader Mullah Omar.
The army commander said a second suspected Taliban member was
also handed over to coalition forces after being captured Wednesday
just west of Kandahar as he was trying to fire rockets at the city.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said he could not
comment on the individual cases of detainees, including if they had
even been taken into coalition custody.
In separate fighting, two dead suspected insurgents were shot
dead in Shah Wali Kot district, just north of Kandahar, on
Wednesday after attacking Afghan army troops patrolling the area,
Amid said.
