Taliban leaders seized in assault on Afghan town

By Samar Zwak

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan and NATO-led forces have captured two senior Taliban leaders during an offensive to retake the insurgents' most important stronghold in Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

Musa Qala, in the southern province of Helmand, is symbolic for both sides in the conflict in Afghanistan as the only sizeable Afghan town controlled by the Taliban.

Forty-eight hours after the operation began, there was less fighting on Sunday as troops resupplied and positioned themselves for the assault on the town.

"If you think of it like a house, the house is surrounded, the Afghan army is waiting outside. We are in the process of kicking the door in, then the Afghan army is going through it," said British army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton.

"Right now it is going according to plan. As to how tough the fighting will or will not be, that is up to the insurgents," General Dan McNeill, the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, told reporters.

"If the insurgent wants to fight then the Afghan forces going into Musa Qala will be up to the task," he said.

The operation is expected to last several days, but Afghan and foreign forces appeared to have scored an early victory with the capture of two Taliban civilian leaders in Helmand.

"During the operation, two Taliban commanders named Mullah Mateen Akhond and Mullah Rahim Akhond have been captured by joint forces," the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement.