US-led troops killed one suspected militant and detained six others, including one with alleged links to fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in a string of raids in eastern Afghanistan, the American military said on Friday. Troops from the US-dominated coalition and Afghan soldiers detained two of the militants in a raid on Wednesday near the eastern city of Jalalabad, a coalition statement said. The pair had “ties to suicide attacks and heroin production,” the statement said. “At least one suspect is believed to have ties to reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and has been involved in anti-government and anti-coalition activities in southern and eastern Afghanistan.”
It did not give their names or elaborate on the link to Omar. Further south, coalition and Afghan troops killed a man and detained four other suspected militants “after they refused requests for peaceful surrender” during a raid in Paktika province on Wednesday, a separate statement said.
The man was shot and killed for “displaying a hostile intent toward the combined force,” it said. Raids in three eastern provinces also turned up three weapons and ammunition caches, containing rockets, mortars and 11 cases of anti-aircraft artillery rounds, the coalition said.