Suspected Taliban Fighters Arrested

U.S. and Afghan troops killed a Taliban commander and detained 22 suspected Taliban fighters after a battle in a southern mountain range, officials said Saturday.

Mullah Rozi Khan, a Taliban commander in Zabol province, was killed after troops surrounded rebels in Ghazoi village Friday evening, said Haji Asadullah Khan, governor of neighboring Ghazni province.

Rozi Khan was suspected of involvement in kidnappings and attacks on foreign construction workers along the Kabul-Kandahar highway.

Maj. Scott Nelson, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed the operations in Zabol and Ghazni and said 22 suspected Taliban fighters had been detained.

The Taliban has vowed to disrupt Afghanistan’s Oct. 9 presidential election and has launched frequent attacks on U.S. troops, election workers and Afghan voters. Factional violence and voter intimidation by regional militia leaders also pose problems.

On Friday, a renegade warlord was taken into custody weeks after a clash with a powerful rival in western Afghanistan.

Amanullah, a Pushtun who goes by only one name, was brought to Kabul from the western province of Herat, said Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai. Ludin said Amanullah agreed to the transfer, but officials speaking on condition of anonymity said he was essentially under arrest.

Dozens were killed in clashes this month between Amanullah’s fighters and those of Herat Gov. Ismail Khan, an ethnic Tajik whose rule has alienated minorities and even some of his own commanders.

Ludin would not comment on rumors that Ismail Khan might be ousted, but said the action against Amanullah was “part of a wider plan to take all necessary measures to secure long-term stability in the region.”

A Western diplomat said the Herat governor was being pressed by the government to accept a senior post in Kabul to pave the way for the western region to be disarmed.