KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, 4 July 2005 — Taleban insurgents gunned down a pro-government Islamic scholar in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar yesterday in the second such attack in less than two months, officials said. Maulvi Mohammad Musbah — a leading member of the Kandahar Islamic Council, a pro-government Islamic party — was ambushed and shot outside the city, police chief Mohammed Ayoub Salangi told AFP.
He later died in hospital at the US military base in Kandahar, Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar tribal council and President Hamid Karzai’s brother told AFP. The attack comes a month after militants assassinated Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, the leader of the same council, for speaking out against Taleban fugitive leader Mulla Mohammad Omar.
Taleban attacks in the south and east of the war-torn country have been on the rise in recent months. More than 500 people, some 40 of them over the past two days, have died in political violence since the beginning of this year. A US-led military operation toppled the Taleban in late 2001.
Meanwhile, US and Afghan soldiers searched the mountains of eastern Afghanistan yesterday for a team of Special Forces soldiers who have been missing since suspected Taleban rebels shot down a US helicopter during an attempt to extract the team five days ago.
“There’s a search operation ongoing in Kunar for recovery of the missing team. And there’s an operation ongoing to deny enemy influence up there,” said US military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara.
An Afghan government official said civilians had been killed in the bombing of a suspected insurgent compound at Chical village in the eastern province of Kunar at dusk on Friday, but could give no figures. “There are definitely some civilians among the dead. The operation is ongoing with Afghan and coalition forces on the ground,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
US Col. James Yonts told AFP on Saturday that “all possible efforts are taken to prevent noncombatant injuries and deaths.”
