Posted on 12/27/2006 3:02:54 AM PST by james500
The Taleban are reported to have confirmed the death of a senior commander who the Americans said they had killed in Afghanistan last week.
Initially, the Taleban denied that Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani had died in an air strike in Helmand province.
But Reuters news agency reports an unnamed senior Taleban official as saying his leadership had not wanted to publicise the death.
The US says Osmani headed Taleban operations in southern Afghanistan.
'Bad impact'
"He has died. We got this information on the day of the strike but our leadership ordered us not to disclose it," Reuters reports the commander as telling one of its journalists by phone.
"He was not only an experienced military commander but also good in making financial transactions for us... his death will have some bad impact on our movement for some time."
On Saturday, US officials said Osmani's vehicle had been hit in an air strike in Helmand province on 19 December.
A Taleban spokesman initially dismissed reports of his death.
The Afghan interior ministry called the killing "a big achievement".
An Islamist insurgency spearheaded by the resurgent Taleban militia is at its strongest in the southern Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan.
Osmani was reportedly close to the Taleban's fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and to al-Qaeda chief, Osama Bin Laden.
maybe they will have a big funeral for him and this time the drone will have a missile
HA! It's not going to be long before we get old Omar.
I hope so also. I still grit my teeth remembering an opportunity lost from a previous one.
They are hunting bigger game than that one eyed Jack..my friend....they are hunting the biggest of the big.
If reports are ture we tracked him thru his use of a sat phone...then who was the person on the other end of the connection he was trying to make......hmmmmmmmm.
Dog, have I ever told you how brilliant you are?
:-)
"Dog, have I ever told you how brilliant you are?"
Ahem..No smooching in the Freeper Gallery, please.
"The Taleban are reported to have confirmed the death of a senior commander who the Americans said they had killed in Afghanistan last week."
This must be a big disappointment to the new york times. I'm sure those scumbags were all set to start writing about what a lie the US Military was telling about killing this bum.
Let's hear it Nelson: "Ha ha!"
"Reuters reports the commander as telling one of its journalists BY PHONE."
Oh brother . . .
Hello Abdul....what is that whistling sound....uh oh.
I told you this story belonged on the Nek Mo thread!
;-)
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