KABUL, 6 June 2005 — Afghan forces have arrested a senior Taleban commander accused of leading attacks against Afghan and US-led troops based in the west of the country, a Defense Ministry spokesman said yesterday. Haji Sultan, a division commander for the Taleban, was arrested with Mulla Mohammad Rahim, another senior Taleban official, in the western province of Farah on Saturday, said the spokesman, Zahir Azimy.
“Haji Sultan was on the US military blacklist and we handed him over to them for investigation,” Azimy said. The US military confirmed Sultan’s arrest, describing him as a bomb-maker, but said he was seized on Thursday. A Taleban commander, Mulla Dadullah, said by telephone from an undisclosed location Sultan had not been arrested.
Asked if Sultan’s arrest might help lead authorities to the fugitive Taleban leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, Azimy said investigations would try to determine that. US and Afghan forces as well as authorities in neighboring Pakistan have arrested hundreds of suspected Taleban and their Al-Qaeda allies since the Taleban were ousted from power in late 2001 by US-led forces.
Afghan authorities also have arrested the leader of a gang accused of killing four journalists in 2001, including two from Reuters, officials said. The suspect, identified as Zar Jan, was arrested after a shootout with police in Sarobi district, 50 km east of the capital, Kabul, on Saturday night, the official said.
The four journalists, including Australian television cameraman Harry Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari of Reuters, were killed on Nov. 19, 2001, at Tangi Abrishum, about 90 km east of Kabul. Spaniard Julio Fuentes of El Mundo and Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere della Sera were the other two victims.
Meanwhile, the mother of an Italian aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan made a plea yesterday to the mothers of the men holding her, asking them to help secure her daughter’s freedom. In Italy, Pope Benedict called for the release of Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for the Care international aid agency and was kidnapped by four gunmen on a Kabul street three weeks ago.
“I imagine you have enough problems right now to pay attention to my plea, but I am a mother exactly like all of you, and my heart is bleeding because of the situation my daughter is in,” Germana Cantoni said in the letter. “I beg you all to use all your influence on your sons for the immediate release of my daughter,” she said.
