Free Republic

THE Taliban commander in charge of attacks on British and Nato forces in southern Afghanistan was reported yesterday to have been killed in a US airstrike after an RAF aircraft intercepted his satellite telephone. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, the Taliban treasurer, was the most senior member of the group’s leadership to die in the war on terror, according to US officials. A Taliban spokesman, however, said he was still alive. Osmani, an associate of Osama Bin Laden, is said to have been part of a triumvirate with Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban military commander, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. Osmani...

The US said Mullah Osmani was a top commander in the south 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...

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...

A TALIBAN commander confirmed today that the rebels' military chief in southern Afghanistan had been killed in a US airstrike on December 19, and said his death was a blow for the Islamist movement. The US military said last week Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, who had close links to Osama bin Laden, had been killed in an airstrike in Helmand province – a claim rejected by a Taliban commander and spokesman at the time. But a senior Taliban commander who declined to be identified confirmed Osmani had been killed. “He has died. We got this information on the day of the...

KABUL, Afghanistan - A top Taliban military commander described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in an airstrike this week close to the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said Saturday. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed Tuesday by a U.S. airstrike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said. Osmani was the Taliban's chief military commander in southern Afghanistan and played a "central role in facilitating terrorist operations" including roadside bombs, suicide attacks and kidnappings, the U.S. said.