AfghanistanÂ’s Taliban movement has freed four local Health Ministry officials in exchange for the remains of its slain commander, Mulla Dadullah, a purported Taliban spokesman said on Thursday. Western and Afghan forces killed Dadullah in a clash last month and his body was buried in an undisclosed location in Kandahar. The Taliban, who had kidnapped five health workers in March, demanded this week that DadullahÂ’s remains be handed over to his family or else the hostages would be killed. One of the health workers was beheaded on Tuesday after the government failed to hand over the body, said Shahabuddin Attal, who introduces himself as a Taliban spokesman and his reports have turned out true in the past. A local police official confirmed DadullahÂ’s remains had been handed over to his relatives late on Wednesday night in Kandahar.
Meanwhile, Afghan and international troops killed or wounded more than 30 Taliban militants in the past 24 hours, while an Afghan soldier and a policeman were killed separately, officials said on Thursday.The military operation focused on a district in Helmand province and involved warplanes from NATOÂ’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
In Paktika province, an Afghan soldier was killed and another wounded Wednesday in an exchange of fire with “enemy elements” who had been “bothering people in the area,” the statement said. The US-led coalition reported separately that troops had killed an “enemy militant” in a raid in Nangarhar province on men it said were working with the Al Qaeda network. Three men were detained, it said. And in the southern province of Zabul, Taliban fighters attacked a police post late on Wednesday, sparking a two-hour battle that left one policeman dead, another wounded and two Afghan soldiers hurt, a district police chief said. |