Anti-Taliban drive ends, top militants remain elusive

The Defence Ministry said on Thursday Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, were surrounded by Afghan and US forces in the Dai Chopan area of Zabul province.

But the Interior Ministry said the operation had concluded by midday on Friday and there had been no confirmation that Dadullah and Brother and three other commanders had been hiding there.

"The operation has ended," Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said. "Most of the terrorists have been killed, but a few escaped across the border into Pakistan."

Mashal said captured guerrillas had said senior commanders had been in the region as late as Tuesday, but he doubted top figures like Dadullah and Brother would have risked being there.

"They normally don't come to the front lines," he said.

A Taliban spokesman earlier denied the commanders had been surrounded. He said they had been in the area but had left before the start of the anti-guerrilla operations this week.

"They are in a safe place," he said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. "We are very far from the area where the Americans are conducting their clean-up operation."

Earlier, General Fateh Khan, an army commander taking part in the operation, said he was confident no Taliban had managed to escape and that Dadullah and other Taliban were still surrounded.

However, an Afghan police official who also took part in the hunt said no guerrillas had been found in the area surrounded. "We didn't find even a single low-level Talib," he said.

Mashal said 109 guerrillas had been killed, including mid-level commanders, Mullahs Jamil, Ghani and Easa, in one of the Taliban's bloodiest setbacks since their 2001 overthrow.

He called it a big blow to the Taliban's bid to derail Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

"They wanted to create disruption, but managed to damage themselves," he said, adding that most died in US airstrikes.

The US military said on Wednesday 40-50 guerrillas had died, but has not commented on the final stages of the operation.