Terrorism Suspect Is Captured in a Raid in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A man believed to be a senior leader of the terrorist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan was captured in Afghanistan this week during a joint Afghan and coalition operation in Kunduz Province, NATO officials said Friday.

The raid was the latest in a series conducted by coalition forces against the movement’s leaders in Afghanistan. The group, which is closely tied to Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, has played a role in the revitalized insurgency in northern Afghanistan, where it is believed to be responsible for multiple attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.

NATO does not release the names of captured insurgents. But in a statement, the alliance described the man as the movement’s top leader in Afghanistan. He was taken during a raid on Wednesday along with two associates in the Khanabad district of Kunduz Province. No shots were fired in the operation, NATO said.

Military officials called the man a central conduit between the movement and senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They said he assisted both groups by coordinating suicide and mortar attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout northern Afghanistan and helped coordinate insurgent training in both countries. He escaped from a Pakistani prison in 2010, officials said, and he is believed to have paid bribes to secure the release of other prisoners.

The group is estimated to have 2,500 to 4,000 fighters in Pakistan’s tribal regions and in Afghanistan, according to The Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks the conflicts there. In the past two months, coalition forces have killed more than 20 insurgents within the group, including Bilal Konduzi, its top leader in Afghanistan. Mr. Konduzi and another of the movement’s leaders, Shad Mohammad, were killed in an airstrike in Samangan Province on March 10.

News of the capture came as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, was meeting with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, during a brief visit to Kabul on Friday. The trip came as tensions between Pakistan and the United States worsened over Pakistan’s demands that Americans end drone strikes in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan border, and the American insistence that Pakistan do more to deal with insurgents in the areas. Competing aims for the future of Afghanistan have added to the tensions.

Before arriving in Kabul, Admiral Mullen met with the Pakistani Army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in Islamabad. Mr. Karzai had also recently met with a senior Pakistani delegation, including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who visited Kabul last Saturday.

It is not clear, however, if Admiral Mullen and Mr. Karzai discussed relations among the three countries in any detail on Friday. Waheed Omar, Mr. Karzai’s spokesman, said that while both men discussed their recent conversations with Pakistan officials, that was only one of a wide variety of issues touched on in the hourlong meeting.

“There was not a central focus,” Mr. Omar said. “It was really a general discussion about a range of issues.”

Also on Friday, Afghan officials said that NATO helicopters killed four security guards at a road construction site in an airstrike at 4 a.m. in the Sperra district of Khost Province, near the Pakistan border. A NATO spokesman said the helicopters came under attack from armed men and in the exchange of fire, four people were killed. NATO is investigating the episode.

Insurgents killed a coalition soldier in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. And five Afghan policeman were killed Thursday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Spinbaldak in Kandahar Province. Three police trainees were also killed on Thursday in Nangarhar Province when their vehicle struck a bomb.

And in the eastern province of Paktika, a combined Afghan and American force killed several insurgents after coming under fire in the Yahya Khel district, NATO officials said. Mukhles Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika, said 12 insurgents were killed. The district has been one of the most volatile in the province. No civilians or Afghan or coalition forces were killed in the attack, Mr. Mukhles said.

Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting from Kabul, Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and an employee of The New York Times from Nangarhar Province.