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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Update on Amanullah: U.S. Says It Is Holding Hekmatyar Ally |
| 2004-04-05 |
| The U.S. military said Monday it is holding a senior ally of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and suspects the man was involved in helping organize two suicide bomb attacks that killed a British and a Canadian peacekeeper earlier this year. The March 31 arrest of Amanullah had been announced previously, but the military had given no details of what he was suspected of doing. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said Amanullah harbored militant leaders and helped protect the men who carried out the back-to-back suicide bombings in Kabul in January that killed one Canadian and one British soldier. Both attacks were claimed by the Taliban. Amanullah "provided safe haven perhaps for the bombers or for people who facilitated the bombers," Hilferty said, adding that he was being questioned at an undisclosed location. He said the man was also suspected of involvement in other bombings in Kabul, but declined to give details. "We do suspect him, though, of harboring anti-coalition leaders," Hilferty added. Hilferty said bomb-making materials and weapons, including grenades and a machine gun, were found by U.S. and Afghan troops when they seized Amanullah on Wednesday at a compound in Mayden Shahr, the capital of Wardak province, about 25 miles west of Kabul. The U.S. military has said it is confident of trapping fugitives including al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, Taliban chief Mullah Omar and Hekmatyar this year. Amanullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, was a commander in central Wardak province for Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e Islami faction during the U.S.-backed war against Afghanistan’s Soviet occupiers in the 1980s. Hilferty said he was still a "senior commander" for the group, which has joined the Taliban in vowing to drive foreign troops out of the country and oust President Hamid Karzai. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #1 "bomb-making materials and weapons, including grenades and a machine gun, were found by U.S. and Afghan troops when they seized Amanullah" yep, that'd be Hek's boyz. Good catch |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-04-05 12:14:39 PM |