A U.S.-led coalition operation supported by NATO troops killed the Taliban's most prominent military commander, dealing the insurgency a "serious blow," a NATO statement said Sunday, confirming Afghan reports of Mullah Dadullah's death.| Dadullah, a Taliban commander who trained suicide bombers, was killed after he left his cave "sanctuary" in southern Afghanistan, according to a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force. |
Dadullah is one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders to be killed since the fall of the hardline regime following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and his death represents a major victory for the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO troops. Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service.
A second intelligence service official said Dadullah was killed near the Sangin and Nahri Sarraj districts of Helmand province, which have seen heavy fighting involving British and Afghan troops and U.S. Special Forces. Earlier Sunday, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid showed Dadullah's body to reporters at a news conference in the governor's compound. An Associated Press reporter said
| The body had no left leg and three bullet wounds: one to the back of the head and two to the stomach. |
Cool ... just like CSI:(fill in blank)!
But Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, denied that the Taliban commander had been killed. "Mullah Dadullah is alive," Ahmadi told AP by satellite phone. He did not give further details.
"Yeah. They got somebody else. Prob'ly a civilian. An underage civilian woman, in fact. We really do all look alike, y'know."
Dadullah emerged as a Taliban commander during its fight against the Northern Alliance in northern Afghanistan during the 1990s, helping the hardline militia to capture the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001, Dadullah emerged as probably the militant group's most prominent and feared commander. He often featured in videos and media interviews, and earlier this year predicted a massive militant spring offensive that has failed to materialize.
Actually, this is the massive militant spring offensive. They're better at bloodthisty threats and chopping people's heads off than they are at kicking NATO ass.
In an interview shown on Al-Jazeera on April 25, Dadullah claimed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was behind the February attack outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney — although the U.S. military this month claimed a Libyan al-Qaida operative, Abu Laith al-Libi, not bin Laden, was behind it.
Dadullah insisted bin Laden was alive and well. "Thank God he is alive. We get updated information about him. Thank God he planned operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan," he told Al-Jazeera in excerpts that were translated into Arabic. The interview was not the first time in recent months that Dadullah has said bin Laden is alive. On March 1, London television Channel 4 aired an interview in which he said the al-Qaida leader was in contact with Taliban officers. The station did not say when the tape was made.
Al-Jizz sez...
Taliban military commander killed
Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's chief military commander, has been killed in southern Afghanistan according to government officials. James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent, was shown a body the authorities said was Dadullah's on Sunday morning. A sheet was removed from the body up to the knee to show that part of one of the legs was missing. Dadullah lost a leg fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s.| Bays says a Nato source had told him privately that there was still some confusion over the reports but that they did believe the body was Dadullah... The Taliban was still confused over whether Dadullah had been killed. Some sources had confirmed the body was his while some others said it was another military commander who also happened to only have one leg. |
Bays said the Taliban was still confused over whether Dadullah had been killed. Some sources had confirmed the body was his while some others said it was another military commander who also happened to only have one leg. A Taliban spokesman had earlier rejected the government's claim labelling it "propaganda".
Standing next to the body Bays said that although he had never met Dadullah face to face, the corpse was either him or someone bearing a striking resemblance to him. Television stations interrupted routine broadcasting to give breaking news of the killing.
