Afghan security forces have captured Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s personal security chief as he traveled in a van to the southern city of Kandahar, provincial officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
The capture of the head of Mullah Omar’s household security could help U.S. and Afghan forces track down his boss, one of the most wanted fugitives in the U.S.-led war on terror.
“We have arrested top Taliban figures Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan and Mullah Angar on the way between Arghandab and Kandahar. They were carrying a satellite telephone and some important documents,” said one Kandahar official, who requested anonymity.
“We are hopeful we will arrest more Taliban figures and we hope that we can arrest their leader Mullah Omar,” he said.
Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the provincial government, confirmed the arrests.
Mullah Omar’s Taliban militia have been waging an insurgency in the south and southeast of Afghanistan since they were driven from power in late 2001 by U.S. and Afghan forces.
Toor Mullah Naqibullah Khan was unarmed when he was arrested with Mullah Angar, another Taliban commander, on Monday evening. The security official said they were picked up following a tip-off from a Taliban insider.
President Hamid Karzai has offered to let any Taliban fighters resume a peaceful life following his election in the country’s first presidential vote on Oct. 9.
Some Taliban figures will be shown no clemency because of the gravity of their crimes against the nation, however. The government, with input from U.S. authorities, is expected to draw up a list of militants who will not be accepted back in the mainstream.
U.S.-led forces launched a winter offensive called “Operation Lightning Freedom” last week aimed a preventing the Taliban from regrouping to pose a threat to a parliamentary election due in April, or possibly a few months later.
There are some 18,000 U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan helping Afghan security forces hunt down Taliban guerrillas and some rare al-Qaida remnants still in the country.
In addition, there are around 8,400 NATO-led peacekeepers providing security in the capital, Kabul, and the more peaceful North.