Kabul extradites a group of Uzbek terrorists to Tashkent

The government of Afghanistan has extradited seven militants from the so-called Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and another terrorist trained in Chechnya to the law-enforcement bodies of Uzbekistan.

The national security service of Uzbekistan reports that in May 1997 Ilkhom Mamadzhanov (b.in 1965) and 6 other residents of the Ferghana region of Uzbekistan illegally got into Tajikistan through the mountains, where they were trained at an IMU camp. At the end of January 2001 these militants were sent to Afghanistan "to help the Taliban." In November 2001 they were detained by troops of the anti-Taliban coalition.

Khamidulla Kudratov, 33, who was arrested in Pakistan, at the beginning of January 1999 was trained in Chechnya in the camp of Khattab, one of the Chechen terrorist warlords, and in August of the same year took part in armed assaults on Daghestan. After having been wounded he received medical treatment in Tbilisi. In 2000 Kudratov moved over to Afghanistan.

According to his evidence, in the town of Mazar-i-Sharif he learned how to place mines and use explosives from an Arab by the name of Abu-Khabbor, member of the Al-Qaeda organization. After the Taliban were defeated by the anti-terrorist coalition he fled to Karachi in Pakistan, where he was arrested and handed over to American representatives.