Kabul: A senior Taliban commander disguised
in woman`s clothes was killed by Afghan and international
forces when he fired on troops trying to catch him south of
Kabul, the military said today.
NATO and Afghan security forces cornered Ghulam Sakhi at
a compound last night in Logar province`s Puli Alam district,
and called for women and children to leave the building, a
coalition statement said.
"As they were exiting, Sakhi came out with the group
disguised in women`s attire and pulled out a pistol and a
grenade and shot at the security force," the statement by
NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
"When Afghan and coalition forces shot him he dropped the
grenade and it detonated, wounding a woman and two children,"
it said.
Sakhi was known by several aliases and was involved in
attacks on Afghan and foreign forces using improvised
explosive devises (IEDs), the main Taliban weapon in the war
now in its ninth year.
He had also been involved in the kidnap and killing of a
security chief in Logar province, ISAF said.
Afghan and international forces also killed several
insurgents in an air strike last night in the southern
province of Zabul, ISAF said.
After the air strike aimed at groups waging roadside bomb
attacks, troops found materials used for making IEDs, as well
as automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers at
the scene, it said.
The statement added that the military took steps to
protect civilians before calling in the air strike.
Civilian casualties are an incendiary issue in
Afghanistan, even though the United Nations reported early
this year that the vast majority of civilian deaths are caused
by Taliban attacks.
The former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, US
General Stanley McChrystal, limited air strikes as he made
minimising civilian casualties a major tenet of his
counter-insurgency strategy.
McChrystal was sacked this week for insubordination and
replaced by General David Petraeus, the chief architect of the
counter-insurgency strategy.
PTI
