U.S. strike kills Afghan Taliban leader
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. Two associates also were killed, it said.
Osmani, regarded as one of three top associates of Omar, is the highest-ranking Taliban leader the coalition has claimed to have killed or captured since U.S. forces invaded
Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting bin Laden.
U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins described Osmani's death as a "big loss" for the ultraconservative militia.