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20 killed in Afghan violence

Taliban commander captured: Nato

AFP, KabuU Ghazni
Nato-led soldiers have captured a Taliban commander said to have links to the most senior figures in the extremist militia that is waging an insurgency in Afghanistan, the force said yesterday.
Mullah Sakhi Dad and another insurgent were captured at a compound in the southern province of Uruzgan on Wednesday, Nato's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
He had been leading a "significant number of Taliban fighters" and was implicated in suicide bombings, the distribution of ammunition and the kidnapping of Afghan civilians, it said.
Sakhi Dad was also understood to be connected to Taliban leadership, especially Mullah Berader Akhund, the Taliban's second-in-command, it said.
It appears he was captured in 2004. Afghan officials could not be reached to confirm this although the statement said the fighter had previously been given a chance to "reconcile" with the government.
. That militant, called Mullah
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Sakhi Dad Mujahid, was held carrying a satellite telephone containing the phone numbers of top members of the ousted fundamentalist regime including its supremo, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Afghan officials said at the time he had been a secretary to Mullah Omar under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule.
The United States invaded .Afghanistan in late 2001 and toppled the hardline Taliban government for harbouring al-Qaeda leaders. Despite their efforts, the most senior leaders of the Thliban and other radical groups have escaped capture.
Meanwhile, up to 23 suspected militants were killed in a series of operations by Afghan and foreign troops in Afghanistan, officials said Saturday, as a senior sports official was found dead.
The body of Alikhail, the head of sports for the eastern province of Paktika who went by only one name, was found dumped by the side of the road Saturday, a day after he was kidnapped by Taliban rebels, a provincial official said.
"The Taliban killed him." the official, who asked not to be identified, told AFP.
The insurgents -- in government between 1996and 2001 -- regularly target officials of the new administration in theirviolent campaign.
In a raid against the rebels in the central province of Ghazni, US-led troops killed two militants late
Friday, the force said, although local government said six had died.
The men were killed after they were seen manoeuvring on the force as they searched a compound for a militant leader responsible for roadside bomb attacks, the force said in a statement.
On Saturday, dozens of villagers carrying the corpses of two men marched to the governor's house, claiming the casualties were civilians, local government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told .AFP.
"The coalition forces, without discussing with us, conducted an operation against Taliban in Ander district. We've no idea who the casualties were. We re investigating to find out whether they were Taliban orcivilians." hesaid.
"Villagers are saying that two civilians were killed in that operation," the spokesman said.
In a separate incident, the force killed three militants in the eastern province of Kunar, it said.
A dozen other militants including two rebel commanders were killed in separate raids by Afghan intelligence agents and the Nato-led Internationa) Security Assistance Force in the southern province of Kandahar, an official
The raids -- on Thursday and Friday -- on the rebels' hideouts in the province's troubled Zhari district were based on intelligence, the Afghan spy agency's chief in Kandahar. Abdul Qayoum Katawazi. told/\FP