Kidnapped Italian Soldiers Freed, More Scuzzy Muzzies Killed in Afghanistan Raid

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Kidnapped Italian Soldiers Freed After Raid in Afghanistan

Monday, September 24, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two kidnapped Italian military personnel were rescued

in a NATO-led combat operation early Monday in western Afghanistan, two days

after they went missing, an official said. Early reports indicated that at

least five of the kidnappers had been killed.

Both Italians were wounded during the operation, one seriously. The two were

being treated in a hospital run by NATO's International Security Assistance

Force.

"They were freed in an ISAF operation. They were both injured. One is in a

more difficult situation than the other," an Italian Embassy official said

on condition of anonymity because of embassy policy. "They are free now.

They are at a military hospital in the western region."

An Afghan translator and driver who were with the Italians were "found," the

official said, adding that he did not know what condition they were in.

NATO troops located the two Italians and attacked the group of kidnappers.

Preliminary reports found that five of the kidnappers were killed, though

the toll may be higher, the official said.

The two Italians, their driver and translator had been missing since

Saturday when they were last seen at a police checkpoint in the Shindand

district of Helmand province, Afghan police said.

The Italians' last contact with their base was Saturday night, the embassy

official said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press on Monday

that the Taliban had not kidnapped the Italians. The embassy official said

it wasn't clear which insurgent group had kidnapped the Italians.

In March, five Taliban prisoners were freed in exchange for the release of a

kidnapped Italian journalist. The head of the Italian aid agency Emergency

has said the Rome government also paid a $2 million ransom last year for a

kidnapped Italian photographer - a claim Italian officials did not deny.

In remote northeastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, unidentified gunmen opened

fire on a vehicle carrying police and government employees, killing 12,

police said Monday.

The attack Sunday left seven policemen and five government employees dead,

and one policeman wounded. They were traveling from northeastern Badakhshan

province to Kabul, said Badakhshan police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz.

The police were being transferred to new posts and so were not armed, he

said.

Elsewhere in northeastern Afghanistan, NATO helicopters fired on a group of

suspected insurgents in response to a rocket attack Saturday. Four Afghans

died and 12 were wounded, the alliance said, and officials were

investigating whether the dead and wounded were Afghan police or civilians

targeted mistakenly.

The NATO strike was in response to a rocket attack at an Afghan army base in

the area.

Initial reports indicated they were Afghan police and road construction

security guards "dressed in civilian attire and carrying weapons on an

uncoordinated patrol," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said

in a statement.

Afghan army commander Gen. Qadam Shah said the 12 wounded were civilians but

the identity of those killed was not clear from preliminary reports.

NATO also said a soldier was killed by gunfire in eastern Afghanistan on

Sunday. The soldier's nationality was not released, though most troops in

that region are American.

At the United Nations on Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Iranian foreign minister and top

officials from other nations overseeing a five-year plan that sets

benchmarks for Afghanistan on security, economic development and the drug

trade.

More than 4,400 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency-related

violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from

Afghan and Western officials.

At least 600 civilians have died in the fighting, many of them mistakenly

hit in airstrikes by Western forces.

In southern Zabul province, meanwhile, the Taliban kidnapped three Afghan

men accused of spying for the U.S. and executed them, beheading one and

shooting the other two, said Shamulzayi district chief Wazir Khan. Khan said

the men were innocent.