Top Taliban arrested in Afghanistan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-08 08:34

A top Taliban commander was arrested in southern Afghanistan and admitted distributing more than $1 million to supporters of the ousted militia, a senior intelligence official said Wednesday.

Afghan men offer Friday prayers at a mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 2, 2004. Afghan and U.N. officials are divided on whether national elections can go ahead as planned in September, the United Nations said Thursday, though, President Hamid Karzai has insisted there should be no fresh delay in the country's first post-Taliban vote, already put back from June because of violence and tough logistics. [AP}

Intelligence agents captured Mullah Mujahid on Tuesday evening in a raid on a compound in Shah Wali Kot, a district of Kandahar province 150 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, said Abdullah, the Kandahar intelligence chief.

"We got a tip that he was hiding in that house, so we surrounded it and caught him," said Abdullah, who goes by one name.

A second suspected Taliban militant, Nisar Hamed, was also detained.

It was unclear if they were arrested peacefully.

Abdullah said Mujahid was a Taliban commander in Takhar province before a U.S. bombardment drove the hardline militia from power in late 2001.

Under interrogation, Mujahid confessed to having entered southern Afghanistan four months ago and distributed $1.3 million to Taliban groups on behalf of their fugitive supreme leader Mullah Omar, Abdullah said.

Mujahid was being transferred to Afghan authorities in Kabul, he said.

Taliban-led militants have mounted a string of deadly attacks on Afghan troops and officials as well as aid workers and organizers of the country's landmark elections, expected in September or October.

U.S. and Afghan forces charged with preventing the guerrillas derailing the vote claim to have killed about 100 rebels in the south of the country since late May, the bloodiest fighting in almost a year.

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