Purported Taliban calls to deny arrest
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A man claiming to be a leading Taliban spokesman denied a government report that he had been arrested, and a police official said it was possible the person being held just happened to have the same name.
The Interior Ministry said Qari Yousef Ahmadi was taken into custody with his brother during a police operation Wednesday in Sufiyan village in Helmand province.
But a man claiming to be Ahmadi called an Associated Press reporter who recognized his voice. “I’ve not been arrested,” Ahmadi said.
Helmand provincial Police Chief Mohammed Hussein Andiwal said, “We have arrested Qari Yousef and his brother from a house yesterday, but I don’t know which Qari Yousef it was or how many there are.”
Meanwhile, officials were trying to gain the release of two International Committee of the Red Cross workers who were kidnapped in Wardak province.
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