Senior Taliban chief killed in Afghanistan, says Afghan official

[Judi Lynn]

Posted 9/26/2004 9:47 AM Updated 9/26/2004 9:52 AM

Senior Taliban chief killed in Afghanistan, says Afghan official
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan security forces killed a senior Taliban commander and two of his comrades in southern Afghanistan, an official said Sunday.

Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, a former inmate at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, died in a gunbattle Saturday night in Pishi village in the southern province of Uruzgan, said Jan Mohammed Khan, governor of Uruzgan.

Khan said authorities had received intelligence that Ghaffar was hiding in the village and was planning an attack against the government. Security forces launched a raid after surrounding a house, and three men, including Ghaffar, were killed in gunfire. None of the security forces was hurt.

The governor said Ghaffar had been a senior Taliban commander in northern Afghanistan and was arrested about two months after a U.S.-led coalition drove the militia out of power in late 2001. After being held for eight months in Guantanamo, he was released and returned to Afghanistan.
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-09-26-afghan-commander-killed_x.htm