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Taliban abduct Briton; ISAF soldier killed

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ts&nid=1388&ad=07-03-2007
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LASHKARGAH
The resurgent Taliban in southern Helmand province claimed they had captured a Briton
and two of his Afghan interpreters for entering the area without permission.
Shahabuddin Atal, who claims to be a spokesman for top Taliban commander Mullah
Dadullah, told Pajhwok Afghan News they held the Briton and his Afghan colleagues in
Nad Ali district a day earlier. He said the British man claimed he was a journalist,
but lacked certificates and documents to prove his affiliation with the media. Atal
added they entered the area without permission of the Taliban. Two satellite
telephones were also taken from the man. The movement's key spokesman Qari Yousuf
Ahmadi confirmed the three men's capture. He said the captives, in good health, were
being grilled. Local officials said they were unaware of the abduction. Last month, a
British journalist for Al-Jazeera television channel was captured by Taliban for a
short time for the same reason - entering the area without permission. In London, the
Foreign Office said it was checking reports about the British citizen's kidnapping.
"We have seen these reports. We're looking into them," a Foreign Office spokesman
told AFP. A Ministry of Defence spokesman added: "We are certainly not aware of any
British soldier being kidnapped." Britain last year spearheaded a NATO push into
volatile southern Afghanistan. Last week Britain announced it would deploy nearly
1,400 extra troops to southern Afghanistan, where the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) is bracing for a Taliban spring offensive. The hostages' fate
would be decided by Taliban higher authorities, Qari Yousef Ahmadi said, adding: "We
are investigating whether they are British spies." He identified the Afghans as Sayed
Agha and Ajmal. A Pakistani newspaper identified earlier named the British man as
John Nichol, but little else is as yet known about him. The two Afghans were
translators who work with western journalists, it added. Nichols is not the British
journalist and author of the same name who was previously a RAF navigator captured in
Iraq in 1991. The kidnapping came as NATO-led troops launched a major offensive
against Taliban militants in Helmand. A NATO soldier was killed and a tank of them
was destroyed in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan. A brief statement from
the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said an ISAF soldier was
killed on Tuesday in the south. In the southern Ghazni province, a military vehicle
of the NATO troops was destroyed by a roadside bomb, but there is no confirmed
information about casualties. Aminullah, police chief of Andar district, where the
incident took place, told Pajhwok Afghan News a roadside bomb hit a NATO patrol on a
road between Mirai and Chardiwal towns, resulting in destruction of a tank. He said
NATO troops did not suffer any casualties in the attack. The Taliban claimed the
attack and said several NATO soldiers were killed in the bomb they planted on the
road. A local Taliban commander Mullah Naseer Kakar said all occupants of the tank
that was blown up in the blast were killed

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undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
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reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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