AFGHANISTAN (voa) – A top member of Afghanistan’s ousted Taleban regime has been reported killed in a U.S. bombing raid.
Afghanistan’s deputy intelligence chief Abdullah Tawheedi told CNN Wednesday that Qari Ahmadullah, the head of Taleban intelligence, was killed in eastern Afghanistan in the past two or three days.
He said the fugitive Taleban officer had been in the home of Taleban commander Mullah Taha when the house was hit by U.S. bombs. He said several others were killed in the attack, but said Mullah Taha escaped injury and remains at large.
Meanwhile, Afghan interim government and military officials say negotiations are under way in southern Afghanistan for the surrender of Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Western news reports quote officials as saying the fugitive cleric is thought to be holed up with about 1,500 Taleban and al-Qaida terrorist fighters near the town of Baghran 160 kilometers northwest of Kandahar.
An anti-Taleban commander is quoted by the Associated Press as saying military leaders have been negotiating for several days with Baghran’s Grand Council of tribal leaders for Mullah Omar’s surrender. Since 1996, the mullah has provided refuge to Osama bin Laden, the reputed mastermind of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States.
Meanwhile, a team of officers from countries contributing peacekeeping troops for Afghanistan has arrived in Kabul to prepare for the U.N.-mandated international force.
The advance team of at least 20 officers from a dozen or more countries arrived in the Afghan capital early Wednesday. The group is to survey conditions for the peacekeeping force of some 4,500 troops that will operate initially under the command of a senior British military officer.
