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AFGHANISTAN

Taliban leader killed, 22 fighters nabbed

KABUL -- U.S. and Afghan troops killed a Taliban commander and detained 22 suspected Taliban fighters during a major search operation after a gunbattle in a southern Afghanistan mountain range, officials said yesterday.

A renegade warlord also was taken into custody weeks after a clash with a powerful rival in the west of the country, as authorities struggle to improve security for October elections.

Mullah Rozi Khan, a Taliban commander in Zabul province, was killed after troops surrounded a group of rebels in Ghazoi village Friday evening, said Asadullah Khan, governor of neighboring Ghazni province.

SUDAN

Arabs continue attacking Africans

AL-FASHER -- Security has improved in camps in Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region, but displaced villagers still face attacks and abuse when they leave their camps, a U.N. team said yesterday as it completed a mission that could determine whether Sudan deserves international sanctions.

Darfur rebels, meanwhile, said government forces and Arab militiamen continue to bomb and torch villages and kill civilians -- with attacks on six villages in the past three days, including one that killed 64 persons. The rebels said they would hold a 24-hour boycott of peace talks with the Sudanese government to protest.