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Kandahar. NATO said on Monday that a Taliban commander was among several armed people killed during a search operation in Kandahar, but residents claimed the troops killed innocent civilians, including two elderly men.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Taliban commander Shyster Uhstad Khan, who was involved in the purchase and distribution of roadside bombs, was among those killed in the engagement on Monday.

The coalition said the combined force also detained a person who was suspected of having direct contact with senior Taliban leaders in Kabul and facilitated the delivery of explosive devices to the capital.

However, Mohmodullah, a relative of some of the victims, said at the scene that eight civilians were killed when troops searched two homes.

“The NATO force climbed over our wall and shot two of my brothers and my father,” Moh­modullah said.

“They did the search operation and they didn’t find anything in our home, so who gave them the authority to do it? If they were Taliban, they need to show us proof. Otherwise, they should be punished for it.”

The death of Khan came on the eve of a Pentagon push to convince lawmakers that the war in Afghanistan remains on track, despite a shake-up in military leadership.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, will testify today before a Senate committee. It will be his first appearance on Capitol Hill since being picked to lead the war in Afghanistan after President Barack Obama’s firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal for criticizing the administration.

The public relations effort comes amid mixed reviews on US success in Afghanistan. Obama is advancing a risky new war plan that relies on 98,000 troops to prop up the Afghan government and prevent Al Qaeda from returning.

Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said the United States had driven Al Qaeda into hiding and undermined its leadership.

At the same time, the United States is struggling to oust its primary sympathizer, the Taliban, from Afghanistan, the nation’s spymaster said this weekend.

“We’re seeing elements of progress, but this is going to be tough,” Panetta told the American Broadcasting Co.’s “This Week.”

Panetta said Al Qaeda’s evolving attack strategy relied increasingly on operatives without any record of terrorism involvement or those already in the United States.

As for Osama bin Laden, Panetta said it had been years since the United States had good intelligence about his whereabouts.

He said bin Laden was hiding amid Pakistan’s rough terrain with “tremendous security around him.”

“If we keep that pressure on, we think ultimately we can flush out bin Laden” and other Al Qaeda leaders, he said.

Good intelligence on bin Laden’s location “almost goes back, you know, to the early 2000s. Since then, it has been very difficult to get any intelligence on his exact location,” Panetta said.

He estimated there were fewer than 100 Al Qaeda militants operating inside Afghanistan, with the rest hiding along Pakistan’s mountainous western border.

He said US drone strikes and other spy operations had helped “take down” half of Al Qaeda’s senior leaders.

“We are engaged in the most aggressive operations in the history of the CIA in that part of the world, and the result is that we are disrupting their leadership.”

At the same time, Panetta offered a less upbeat assessment of the fight against the Taliban, the anti-US insurgency operating inside Afghanistan’s borders.

When asked whether the Tali­ban had grown stronger since Obama took office, Panetta said it was acting more violent and being more aggressive in “going after our troops,” including its use of roadside bombs.

There is progress, he said, even if it’s “slower than I think anyone anticipated.”


AP, AFP