NATO says district Afghan Taliban chief arrested

And the Taliban think they are winning .



Stupid Ass Clowns .

Associated press
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai has signed a decree launching an Afghan program to lure Taliban foot soldiers off the battlefield, as troops continue rounding up mid- to senior-level militant commanders including a Taliban leader captured in a four-hour gunbattle in the south, NATO said Thursday.

NATO said the Taliban district chief of Now Zad was captured and an unspecified number of insurgents were killed during an Afghan-international force operation Wednesday night in the remote Baghran district in northern Helmand province.

Taliban fighters inside the compound fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns before troops called in a precision airstrike, NATO said.

There were no casualties among civilians, Afghan troops or international service members, but an undisclosed number of Taliban were killed or wounded, the alliance said. Helmand provincial spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said 31 militants were killed.

The joint force seized dozens of automatic weapons, grenade launchers and 20 pounds of opium in the compound at Now Zad, a former insurgent stronghold where U.S. Marines have reported progress in winning over the population after a major offensive last summer.

NATO has reported that 130 mid- to senior-level Taliban have been killed or captured across the nation in the past four months.