A two-hour gunbattle between suspected Taliban militants and police left two policemen dead in western Afghanistan, a spokesman said on Sunday. The Taliban attacked a highway police checkpoint on Saturday night in Farah province’s Bakwa district and two officers were killed in the subsequent clash, said Baryalai Khan, spokesman for the provincial police chief. Separately, a UN mine-clearing worker was wounded when suspected Taliban militants ambushed Afghan and US-led coalition forces north of Kabul, the coalition said on Sunday. The militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at Afghan and coalition forces on Saturday in the Tag Ab district of Kapisa province, a coalition statement said. It said no Afghan or coalition forces were hurt in the attack. However, the de-miner’s UN vehicle, which had been travelling separately from the convoy in the opposite direction on the same road, was hit in the attack, the statement said. The de-miner was “wounded by extremist forces’ small-arms fire,” it said.
Denise Duclaux, a spokeswoman for the UN Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan, said the Afghan de-miner had been returning from a work site to his base camp. He was hit in the shoulder and treated by a paramedic travelling with him, Duclaux said, adding that his condition was stable.
Meanwhile, the Taliban said on Sunday they had released an Italian journalist held for spying, along with his Afghan translator, but Rome said it still had no reason to believe the reporter had been freed. Karachi-born La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released after Afghan authorities freed two Taliban officials, rebel spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by satellite phone from a secret location. A provincial official said two Taliban were released late on Saturday night. They were spokesman Latif Hakimi and a leader known as Ustad Yasar, Yousuf said.
However, an Italian government spokesman in Rome, as well as its mission in Kabul, said they had no confirmation. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that veteran correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, had been freed but his employer, Rome-based La Repubblica newspaper, said it did not have confirmation.
Separately, Taliban guerrillas chopped noses and ears of at least five truck drivers in eastern Afghanistan as punishment for transporting supplies to US-led troops, officials and residents said on Sunday.