Taliban Foil US Rescue Attempt

ISLAMABAD, Thursday – Taliban troops Thursday foiled an attempt by four US helicopters to rescue Hamid Karzai, a close aide of ex-King Zahir Shah, amid a clash with the ruling militia near southern Kandahar province, the Afghan Islamic Press reported. It said Taliban troops on a tip-off raided a hideout of Karzai and his supporters in Deharwad town in Uruzgan province abutting Kandahar. In the ensuing battle, four supporters of ex-king were killed and several others were wounded, the news service said quoting Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef. Zaeef said during the clash four US helicopters landed in the town and tried to save and evacuate Karzai, but the attempt was foiled by Taliban forces, Zaeef told the Pakistan-based news service. Karzai and his colleagues fled into the mountains but the Taliban forces were chasing them, it said. Karzai, who commanded influence in southern Afghanistan before the Taliban seized power in 1996, was on a mission to seek tribal support for the ex-king who lives in exile in Rome, it said. Taliban last Friday executed a former mujahideen commander Abdul Haq, who was on a mission to establish support of ethnic Pashtun tribes for an uprising against the Islamic militia. Taliban officials said two other people who were detained with Abdul Haq were also executed with him. The death of Abdul Haq was seen as a blow to a covert plan to split Taliban and pave the way for the capture of alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden harboured by the ruling Islamic militia. Karzai served as deputy foreign minister in mujahedin’s interim government after the fall of the communist regime in 1992. AFP Ends