KABUL — A militant who led operations in Afghanistan for an Al Qaeda-linked terror group has been captured in the north, where his fighters joined forces with the Taliban to step up attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, NATO said yesterday.
The senior figure from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was apprehended in Kunduz Province along with two of his associates, the coalition said.
NATO described the militant, whom it did not identify, as a key conduit between the IMU’s leadership in Pakistan and senior Taliban leadership in Afghanistan. Afghan and coalition forces had been tracking him for several weeks.
In other incidents across Afghanistan, an insurgent attack yesterday killed a NATO service member in the east, bringing to 128 the number of coalition troops killed this year. On Thursday, a roadside bomb killed five Afghan border policemen in southern Afghanistan and the nephew of an Afghan warlord was reportedly killed in fighting southwest of Kabul.
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