Top Taliban commanders directing battle, government says

102 insurgents killed in clash with Afghan, U.S. forces

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Radio intercepts indicate two top Taliban commanders are with dozens of rebels battling in the southern mountains against a blistering barrage from Afghan and U.S. forces, senior government officials said Thursday.

The death toll from three days of fighting was reported at 114 -- including 102 insurgents. Afghan officials said they had dealt the insurgency a body blow, but such claims have been made many times before in a war that refuses to wind down.

Many Afghans fear an upsurge in fighting since spring could been a sign that the insurgency is strengthening, and Afghan and U.S. officials have warned that violence could get even worse before parliamentary elections in September.

Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Marad said the two commanders are Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brader, both well known names in the Taliban rebellion who are accused of orchestrating attacks across much of Afghanistan's violence-ridden south.

"Afghan army officials intercepted their radio conversations" coming from a mountainous area on the border between Kandahar and Zabul provinces that has been besieged by hundreds of Afghan and U.S. troops and bombarded by attack aircraft, he said.

Captured insurgents have also said during interrogations that the pair were leading the rebels' battle, Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal told The Associated Press.

Before U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, Brader held many top jobs in the Islamic militia's hard-line regime, including being the commander in the capital, Kabul.

Dadullah, who has a wooden leg, was the top general in the country's north during the Taliban regime, and he has since been accused of ordering the slaying of a Red Cross worker from El Salvador in March 2003.

Mashal said three other lower-ranking Taliban commanders were among the 102 rebels killed in fighting since Tuesday. The death toll was 26 higher than Wednesday. Two of the dead were Chechens, three were Pakistanis and one appeared to be an Arab, said Gen. Salim Khan, a police commander at the battlefield.

Twelve Afghan policemen and soldiers have also been killed, officials said.

The U.S. military has reported a lower death toll than the government. On Wednesday, the U.S. command said 49 insurgents had been killed, and spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore said Thursday that there had been no update since then and referred queries to the Afghan government.

About 80 rebels were still believed to be in the mountains holding out against Afghan and coalition forces, Mashal said. Others fled on horses and motorbikes toward the Pakistani border, about 120 miles away, he said.