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Afghan soldiers have captured a Taliban leader who tried to flee a security operation in the south dressed in a burqa, NATO said on Wednesday. Tuesday's capture in Kandahar province came as NATO launched a major offensive in neighbouring Helmand to secure a key hydroelectric dam and combat the opium trade. The man was named as Mullah Mahmood and described as an expert bomb-maker. U.S.-led coalition forces also detained five more suspected militants in eastern Khost this week. Fighting is expected to be heavy in 2007 after the bloodiest year since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. The Taliban warn they...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Feb 14, 2007 (AP)— A NATO airstrike early Wednesday destroyed a compound housing a Taliban leader blamed for a wave of violence across southern Afghanistan, killing him and at least 10 others, NATO said. NATO said the slain Taliban chief was linked to an uprising in the nearby town of Musa Qala, which the Taliban overran Feb. 1, and an attack Tuesday against a dam in nearby Kajaki. "We have removed yet another Taliban enemy leader who will no longer threaten the peace and security of the Afghan people and their future," said Lt. Col. Angela Billings, a...

Excerpt - KABUL, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydrolectric dam, NATO said on Wednesday. The Taliban have used human shields before, but never children, local residents say. The fighting occurred during Operation Kryptonite on Monday, an offensive to clear insurgents from the Kajaki Dam area in southern Helmand province to allow repairs to its power plants and the installation of extra capacity. "During this action ... Taliban extremists resorted to the use of...

February 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says it has thwarted a Taliban attack on a key hydroelectric dam in the southern province of Helmand, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported. The alliance says more than 300 troops from Britain and other NATO countries secured the Kajaki dam late on February 12 with support from NATO aircraft and Afghan government troops. Afghan provincial officials said at least 15 Taliban have been killed during the past three days in clashes near the dam. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said she could not confirm a...

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Feb 12 (Reuters) - At least 700 Taliban fighters have crossed from Pakistan into Afghanistan to destroy a key dam, a major source of electricity, a provincial governor said on Monday. "We have got confirmed reports that they are Pakistani, Uzbek and Chechen nationals and have sneaked in," Helmand Governor Asadullah Wafa told Reuters by telephone. The dam, Kajaki, has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces.