Afghan Warrior

A senior Taliban commander was killed and another arrested during a joint operation by the Afghan National Army and coalition forces in Arozgan province after the Taliban attacked ANA and coalition forces. Mullah Abdul Manan was arrested and Mullah Bismillah was killed. Both were key Taliban commanders in the troubled province. According to the ANA, the operation is to be countinued in the area to find other suspicious enemy. Meanwhile, three senior Taliban officials surrendered to the government in the eastern province of Paktia and announced their support for the government. These three Taliban confessed that they were acting against the government and were hiding from coalition forces. A week earlier, Mufti Habibur Rahman, the head of the crime branch of the Interior Ministry under the Taliban regime, surrendered in Khost province.

Violence continues in different parts of Afghanistan. Four Afghan national police were killed by Taliban insurgents. Police were on a patrol when they were ambushed by Taliban. Four of them were killed and three are still missing. In eastern Afghanistan, two civilians were killed and two were wounded in a clash that started while a US military patrol was returning from Khogyani district to Jalalabad province. The Taliban spokesman Hakimi claimed responsibility for the attacks. He said Taliban attacks have killed several ANA and American soldiers. In Zabul province, the US-led coalition patrol came under attack in Deh Chupan district. A US soldier was injured and two Taliban militants were killed. On Wednesday an American soldier was killed in Deh Rawood in the southern Orzgan province when his unit was ambushed. Last week a Romanian soldier in the US-led coalition was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through their convoy in Kandahar province. Taliban spokesman Lutfullah Hakimi claimed responsibility for the ambush.

Remnants of the former Taliban regime have begun increasing their attacks after the winter. Attacks by Taliban have recently increased, particulary the southern and eastern provinces Zabul, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Helmand, Paktia, Paktika, Kabul and Nangarhar provinces have seen a wave of fatal attacks in recent weeks. Taliban vowed to intensify attacks on the US and Afghan government after the winter. According to the media, in a meeting held in the mountains of Paktia province last week, the Taliban radical leaders appointed new commenders with a recommendation to step up attacks on foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan, including the Afghan government as well the US Army.