Taliban commander said surrounded, 10 killed By Sayed Salahuddin

Taliban commander said surrounded, 10 killed By Sayed Salahuddin


KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. and Afghan forces have surrounded a Taliban commander in a central province, an Afghan official said on Friday, after fighting in which the U.S. military said 10 insurgents and an Afghan soldier were killed.

Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammad Khan said Afghan and U.S. forces launched an operation on Thursday after learning that Mullah Dadullah, a top commander and member of the Taliban leadership council, was in the area.

But a guerrilla spokesman denied Dadullah was in the area and spokesmen for the U.S. military and the Afghan Defense Ministry said they had no information he was there.

U.S. military spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts said 10 Taliban had been killed in fighting after insurgents ambushed a patrol. It was the bloodiest clash since Sunday's nationwide elections, which passed off largely peacefully.

Khan said fighting was continuing. "We have information that Dadullah has come and is here," he said.

Yonts said an Afghan soldier was killed and a U.S. soldier wounded and in stable condition.

U.S. air support including attack helicopters had been involved against insurgents who used heavy machineguns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, Yonts said.

He said that the guerrillas force had been estimated at "probably no more than two dozen, perhaps 10 to 20," but it was relatively unusual for them to use heavy machineguns and mortars.

"We are still there on the ground trying to assess the situation and determine why they were there," Yonts said.

A Taliban spokesman said six Taliban fighters had been killed in the fighting. Six U.S. and 10 government soldiers had also been killed, the spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, said by telephone from an undisclosed location. He denied Dadullah was in the area.

AIR STRIKES

The Defense Ministry said in June Dadullah and another Taliban commander had escaped after being surrounded in a major anti-insurgent operation in which the U.S. military said dozens of guerrillas were killed.

Australia said on Friday one of its soldiers had been wounded and an Afghan government soldier killed in a recent Afghan clash. It did not say where or when this took place.

News of the U.S. air strikes comes just days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for a change in strategy in the war against insurgents, saying he did not think there was a big need for military action, and questioning the use of U.S. air power.

U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Rodman responded to Karzai's remarks on Thursday by saying Washington still saw the need for military action in Afghanistan but agreed with his comments on air strikes.

On Wednesday, the Taliban rejected Sunday's elections as a U.S. "drama" and vowed to intensify their war until foreign troops withdraw from the country.

In other violence, police said suspected Taliban gunmen had killed seven Afghan musicians traveling home from a wedding.

Well-known ethnic Turkmen singer Quarab Nazar was among the dead in the attack on Wednesday in the northwestern province of Jozjan, police officer Ibrahim Sharwal said.

The Taliban, who ruled between 1996 and 2001, banned music and cinema under their harsh interpretation of Islam. They have been blamed for several attacks on musicians since their 2001 overthrow by U.S.-led forces.

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