taliban Commander Involved in Hostage Taking Killed in Raid: Police

By Emal Pashtunyar

KABUL _ A dozen Taliban militants, including a leader allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Korean citizens last month, have been eliminated in an operation in Ghazni Province, police here said, Tuesday.

The sweep was jointly conducted by the Afghan army, police and the United States-led Coalition troops around 6:30 a.m. (KST), Tuesday, provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai told The Korea Times.

Without revealing the identities of the remaining 11 insurgents, Ahmadzai said Mullah Abdul Mateen, who was among the abettors of Commander Abdullah Jan in seizing the Korean nationals, was among the slain militants.

The police chief said the operation was conducted in the Qarabagh district, where the Koreans were waylaid and abducted by Taliban militants on July 19. He said coalition forces received a tip off that the Taliban were going to attack a police post in the area, and prepared a plan to ambush them as they were advancing towards the area.

The clash lasted for more than two hours during which both sides used small and heavy arms in the fighting, said Ahmadzai, who added that the Afghan security forces were backed by coalition troops and helicopter gunships which pounded the Taliban positions.

He said 16 more ``enemies of the country,'' a euphemism Afghan officials use for the Taliban, suffered injuries. However, he stopped short of mentioning if Jan was among them.

Jan, alias Abu Mansoor is the key figure behind the kidnapping and 43 days of captivity of the Korean citizens. He is also said to be responsible for the murder of two male hostages.

The commander is said to have ordered the killing of the two after the Afghan government refused to entertain demands regarding the release of Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails.

Confirming the clash, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said only seven of their men were killed and three more injured. However, he said that all those who died in the pre-dawn sweep were ordinary fighters and none of them was a prominent commander.

He rejected the government's claim regarding the killing of Mateen, adding that there was no one of that name in their ranks in Ghazni Province.

This is the first operation by Afghan security forces and foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan in Ghazni Province since the release of the last batch of Korean hostages on August 30.

Previously, the Afghan defense and interior ministries said that their troops were ready to launch an operation to release the hostages. However, according to government sources, the use of force was opposed by the Korean delegation stationed in Ghazni to negotiate the safe release of the kidnap victims.