Taliban commander killed
Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban’s most prominent military commander, was killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan with Afghan and Nato troops, officials said today.
Dadullah was killed yesterday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence service.
A government official in Kandahar province said he had seen Dadullah’s body.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force did not confirm the death but said they were “tracking” it.
A second intelligence service official said Dadullah was killed near Helmand’s Sangin and Nahri Sarraj districts, which have seen heavy fighting involving British and Afghan troops and US Special Forces.
Dadullah would be one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders to be killed since the fall of the hard-line regime following the US-led invasion in 2001, and his death would represent a major victory for the Afghan government and US and Nato troops.
He is considered one of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s top lieutenants in southern Afghanistan.
