2 suspected al-Qaida members caught by coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan

Wednesday, February 7th 2007, 6:08 am

By: News On 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ Coalition forces captured two suspected al-Qaida members during an early morning raid in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, a military statement said. Afghan officials said soldiers captured six men and killed one person during the raid.

The raid near the town of Hakimabad in Nangarhar province was conducted based on information provided ``about an al-Qaida member known to pass correspondence for al-Qaida senior leaders,'' the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.

The two Afghan men were taken into custody to determine their association with al-Qaida, the statement said.

Ghafoor Khan, the spokesman for the provincial police chief, said coalition troops shot and killed one person during the raid, and that six people were detained and taken away. He said the raid took place 10 miles south of Jalalabad.

The reason for the discrepancy in the number arrested was not immediately clear.

Several militant groups including al-Qaida, the Taliban, and fighters for warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, operate in eastern Afghanistan. The groups do not always operate together, though they may share the same goals.

The military did not say who executed the raid, but U.S. Special Forces soldiers operate under the banner of ``coalition forces'' in Afghanistan. Coalition forces work under a separate command structure than NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

In the western province of Herat, meanwhile, three police died and one was injured while attempting to disarm a roadside bomb discovered in Shindand district, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.