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Originally posted by Garry Shipton
UBISQUE
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???? Is this some type of do-it-yourself biscuit mix??? Or is it a doggie treat?
Canadian and Afghan troops may have caught a big fish.
Coalition forces may have caught Taliban official
Updated Fri. May. 19 2006 3:44 PM ET
CTV.ca News
A top Taliban leader may have been captured earlier this week in a joint operation by Canadian and Afghan coalition forces during the firefight that killed Capt. Nichola Goddard, an Afghan general said Friday.
The rebel fighter with only one leg was seized in a battle in Kandahar province on Wednesday, Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, head of the Afghan military's southern region, told The Associated Press.
He is currently said to be unconscious in a military hospital.
Raufi said there was a good chance that the captive was Mullah Dadullah, who was the top general in the country's north during the Taliban regime, but he didn't know for sure.
"If this does prove true it means that this is one of the most dangerous Taliban commanders in this part of Afghanistan," CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Kandahar.
Dadullah, who lost a leg fighting for the Taliban during its rise to power in the mid-1990s, is responsible for operations in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan.
He later became one of the Taliban's most feared field commanders and has been accused of orchestrating attacks across much of Afghanistan's violence-ridden south.
Neither the coalition nor the Afghan government in Kabul said they could immediately confirm that forces had captured Dadullah.
"We currently do not have any information but are looking into the claim,'' Lieut. Tamara Lawrence, a U.S. military spokeswoman, told AP. "Right now we don't have any information that would support it.''
But Raufi claims the insurgent was captured during the firefight in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province on Wednesday, that killed Capt. Nichola Goddard and 18 militants. About 35 rebels were reported captured in the battle.
A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai told Reuters some high-ranking Taliban had been captured this week but could not confirm the report.
"There was an operation and three high-ranking Taliban commanders have been captured but I cannot confirm that Mullah Dadullah was one of them," Karim Rahimi told the wire agency.
Mackey Frayer said that more than 20 Taliban suspects were taken into custody in the Canadian operation over the past few days
"They are now in the hands of the Afghan National Army, they will be detained and questioned. We may learn more in next couple of days of exactly who they are and what their roles were in the Taliban."
In December 2005 a court in Pakistan sentenced Dadullah to life in prison for trying to kill a member of parliament Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani.
In an interview with The Associated Press via satellite phone in December, Dadullah claimed that more than 200 insurgents were willing to become attack U.S. forces and their allies as suicide bombers.
Dadullah dismissed the possibility of reconciliation and talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, saying it "owed its existence'' to non-Muslims, and to do so would amount to "joining Christianity and working for Christians.''
Meanwhile, the casket carrying Goddard began the long journey home from Kandahar Friday.
The casket is expected to arrive at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario on Saturday, before being flown back to Goddard's family in Calgary, Alta.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories
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