Islamabad, July 24: Pakistani security forces have arrested a senior Afghan Taleban commander in Quetta.

Mullah Rahim is said to be the senior most Taleban leader in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

The Times quoted British commanders in Afghanistan as saying that Rahim gave himself up on Saturday.

The issue was so sensitive that Pakistani security officials would neither confirm nor deny the capture of Mullah Rahim — just as they have never acknowledged the arrest of other high-ranking insurgents in the past.

Washington, July 24: The increasing number of foreign terrorists, including Uzbeks, Chechans and those from Arab, arriving into Afghanistan from across its borders with Pakistan, has been a cause of concern for the Pentagon.

This has emerged as a major problem for the US, especially in the wake of its inability to send more forces into Afghanistan as the Bush administration presently wants to focus more on Iraq.

Kabul - Afghan President Hamed Karzai ordered an investigation into the gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in northern Sar-e-Pul province, a statement said Wednesday.

Five armed men reportedly forced their way a house, beat the family members and raped the girl, the president's office said.

"The president called it 'villainy and crime against humanity,' and asked the interior minister and deputy head of the Afghan intelligence department to investigate and arrest those involved in the case," the statement said.

Karzai also asked the authorities to submit a report on another similar case that occurred in the same province.

Kabul - Several militants were killed during a US-led coalition forces operation to disrupt militant activities in Wardak province in central Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

Coalition forces searched several compounds in the Sayed Abad district Tuesday targeting a Taliban commander suspected of conducting attacks on coalition forces, including an attack in Wardak on June 26 causing the deaths of three coalition soldiers and an Afghan interpreter, a military statement said.

Kabul - Thousands of members of Afghanistan's Hazara ethnic minority protested Tuesday on the streets of Kabul over a land dispute with the nomadic Kochi tribe.

Hazara leaders charged that a dozen of their people were killed and thousands displaced in Kochi attacks in the central province of Wardak after the nomads entered the Besud district there in recent months in search of grazing land for their livestock.

Hazara people based in the district said the Kochi destroyed their harvest and houses, and this week, Haji Muhammad Muhaqiq, an Afghan lawmaker and leader of the Hazara community, went on hunger strike in protest of what his people have called a land grab.

Kabul, July 22 : At l