Senior Taliban Official Nabbed

Feb. 20 -- A senior former Taliban official reportedly was captured in southern Afghanistan today, as Afghan Cabinet ministers probed deeper into the mysterious killing of the interim minister for civil aviation and tourism.

Mullah Mohammad Chamkani, a former adviser to reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, was captured near Kandahar by U.S. Marines and their Afghan allies, a local Afghan tribal leader told Reuters today.

Following a tip, U.S. and Afghan troops today raided a southern Afghan house, where they found Chamkani, according to Reuters. Another senior Taliban official, Mullah Abdul Mannan, was believed to be with him at the time of the raid but he escaped, according to a local tribal leader.

The capture came as Afghanistan's interim Justice Minister Abdul Rahim Karimi today said a team investigating the killing of the interim minister for civil aviation and tourism, Abdul Rehman, had yet to find proof that three suspects detained in Afghanistan were involved in Rehman's death.

"So far nobody has been proven as the real killer," Karimi told Reuters. "Once we specify the real culprits, then [interim Prime Minister Hamid] Karzai will take the final decision for the punishment."

Although initial reports said Rehman was killed by an angry crowd of hajis — or pilgrims — at Kabul airport, Karzai later dismissed the reports, naming high-ranking officials within his administration as suspects in what he called a killing for "personal reasons."

But speaking to reporters in Kabul today, interim Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said the hostility of the hajis at the airport did in fact play a role in Rehman's killing.

Seemingly contradicting Karzai's earlier statements, Abdullah said the attack was not part of a premeditated plot.

Two senior Cabinet leaders in the interim administration, Mir Wais Sadeq, the minister of labor and social affairs, and Abdul Khaliq Fazal, the minister of public works, are heading the investigation into Rehman's killing.