NATO kills Afghan militant linked to al-Qaida
Source: Yahoo AP
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO and
Afghan forces killed a former Guantanamo detainee who had become a key
al-Qaida affiliate after returning to Afghanistan, officials said
Saturday.
Sabar Lal Melma, who was released from Guantanamo in
2007 after five years of detention, had been organizing attacks in
eastern Kunar province and funding insurgent operations, NATO spokesman
Capt. Justin Brockhoff said.
A NATO statement described Melma as a
"key affiliate of the al-Qaida network" who was in contact with senior
al-Qaida members in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Troops
surrounded Melma's house in Jalalabad city on Friday night and shot him
dead when he emerged from the building holding an AK-47 assault rifle.
Several other people were detained.
A guard at the house, Mohammad
Gul, said a group of American soldiers scaled the walls of the compound
around 11 p.m. and stormed the house, shooting Melma in the assault.
Three others were detained, Gul said.
Melma had been detained for about five days in August, Gul said.
Melma
is not the first former detainee to rejoin the insurgency. In 2009, the
Pentagon said 61 detainees, or approximately 11 percent, released from
Guantanamo had rejoined the fight. Experts have questioned the validity
of that number.
About 520 Guantanamo detainees have been released from custody or transferred to prisons elsewhere in the world.
After
the fall of the Taliban, Melma, 49, was given the rank of brigadier
general and placed in charge of approximately 600 border security troops
in Konar province, according to his military file made public by
WikiLeaks.
He was captured in
August 2002 while attending a meeting with U.S. military officials in
Asadabad and transferred to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in October
that same year. He was suspected of helping carry out rocket attacks
against U.S. troops.
While imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S.
determined he was a "probable facilitator for Al-Qaida members" and was
also thought to have links to Pakistan's intelligence service.
He was sent back to Afghanistan in September 2007.
NATO
said in a statement that coalition forces have captured or killed more
than 40 al-Qaida insurgents in eastern Afghanistan this year.
In
June 2010, then CIA Director Leon Panetta said only 50 to 100 al-Qaida
operatives continued to operate inside Afghanistan. It's not clear if
Panetta was referring to commanders or foot soldiers.
In Kabul,
meanwhile, a political standoff over the makeup of the legislature
continued as police escorted a handful of new lawmakers into parliament
despite protests from sitting parliamentarians that the new group is
illegitimate.
Afghan election
officials ruled last month that nine sitting parliamentarians should be
replaced following a review of vote fraud allegations from last year's
election.
More than 1,000 police
were stationed around the parliament building Saturday in anticipation
of violence, but the new lawmakers took their seats without incident,
officials said. Saturday was the first day back at work after the
Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr and many lawmakers had not yet returned
from their home provinces.
The nine ousted parliamentarians were blocked from entering and vowed to continue to fight for their seats.
"This
is a coup against the Afghan parliament and against democracy," said
Mohammad Rafiq Shaher from Herat province, one of the ousted lawmakers.
And
in the southern city of Kandahar, officials said NATO forces killed a
child and a shopkeeper who were caught up in a firefight between a
military patrol and a gunman. The attacker started shooting at the NATO
troops and they returned fire, killing the two. NATO said it was
investigating the incident and could not yet confirm any details.
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