Islamabad - The Taliban have arrested an aide to Mullah
Dadullah who allegedly not only provided information to US forces
that led to the militant commander's death in Afghanistan but also
hid his artificial leg as troops closed in, a Pakistani newspaper
said Thursday.
'We have captured Din Mohammed, an American spy who played a key
role in trapping Mullah Dadullah,' an unnamed Taliban commander told
Pakistan's The News in a telephone interview.
The Taliban's chief military
strategist died Friday in a US-led operation with about 10 of his men
in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand.
The Taliban commander claimed that Mohammed, a trusted friend of
Dadullah, had confessed that he had spied for the Americans.
'He had several meetings with American army officials at their
military air base in Kandahar, where he was assigned the task of
trapping Dadullah,' the commander said.
As more than 300 US, NATO and Afghan forces closed in on the
village of Brahmcha, Mohammed removed the sleeping Dadullah's
artificial left leg to ensure he did not flee, the commander said.
'When American and Afghan army forces attacked the house, Dadullah
was searching for his leg while his men started fighting,' the
Taliban commander told the newspaper.
According to conflicting versions, Dadullah lost his leg either
after stepping on a mine
near the western Afghan city of Herat in the mid-1990s or while
fighting in Kabul around the same time.
Mohammed spent the night in a wheat field near Brahmcha after
Dadullah died of bullet wounds to the head and chest, the Taliban
commander said.
When the fighting ended, Taliban members moved his body to another
place and were preparing to bury him when US helicopters mounted an
airstrike on the area, allegedly also acting on a tip-off by
Mohammed. They later removed the body, he said.
Dadullah's body, minus the left leg, was displayed Sunday by
Afghan government officials in neighbouring Kandahar province.
Dadullah was a member of the Taliban's 10-member leadership
council. International security forces termed his death a 'serious
blow' to the insurgents.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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