NATO Says Forces Capture Bin Laden Associate in Afghanistan

Posted June 2nd, 2011 at 11:10 am (UTC-5)
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NATO says Afghan and coalition troops have captured an al-Qaida facilitator who was a former associate of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

In a statement Thursday, NATO said the man was captured in the Nahr-e Shahi area of northern Balkh province, but did not give his name.

The coalition said the Pakistan-based man planned attacks and was a close associate of senior al-Qaida insurgents. He is also suspected of being with bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001.

NATO says he is one of several senior al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents captured in Balkh province this year.

Also Thursday, insurgents attacked a road construction site in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing two security guards and a police officer. Provincial spokesman Milad Ahmad Mudasir said a number of the attackers were also killed in subsequent fighting.

The German military said Thursday a bomb attack in Baghlan province killed one of its soldiers and wounded six others. It said a roadside bomb struck the soldiers' tank near the northern city of Kunduz.

Germany has about 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO coalition.

A Polish soldier was killed and two others were wounded in an insurgent attack in eastern Ghazni province Thursday. The Polish military says unknown assailants fired on the patrol with grenades and small arms.

Roughly 2,600 Polish troops are deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led force.