Text 25865, 62 rader
Skriven 2006-12-23 20:26:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Taliban
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Watch some democrat claim credit for this...

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http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-
12-23T134456Z_01_N21176872_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN.xml&src=rss

U.S. forces kill top Taliban leader
Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:45am ET

By Terry Friel

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces said on Saturday they had killed the 
Taliban's military chief in southern Afghanistan, where the insurgency 
is at its bloodiest, the most senior rebel leader killed yet.

Akhtar Mohammad Osmani and two other guerrillas were killed in an air 
strike on their car on an isolated desert road on Tuesday, spokesman for 
the U.S.-led coalition force, Colonel Tom Collins, said in Kabul.

"Mullah Osmani is the highest ranking Taliban leader that we've ever 
killed," he said. "His death is very significant and will hit the 
Taliban's operations." 

The Taliban said Osmani, once anointed by the group's leader, Mullah 
Mohammad Omar, as his heir, was alive.

"We strongly deny this. He is not present in the area where American 
forces are claiming to have killed him," commander Mullah Hayat Khan 
told Reuters by telephone.

"The American and NATO forces from time to time make such false claims. 
It's just propaganda against the Taliban."

Osmani controls the Taliban's fighting machine in six provinces in its 
southern heartland, including Helmand and Kandahar where foreign troops, 
mainly British and Canadian, have suffered their worst casualties this 
year. 

Osmani was also close to Osama bin Laden and helped coordinate relations 
with al Qaeda and other militant groups.

Collins said Osmani's car was destroyed in the attack in Helmand and the 
U.S. coalition had taken four days to check intelligence and other 
sources.

"We're sure that we killed Osmani," he said. "It's a big loss for the 
Taliban. But the Taliban is also fairly adaptive. There is no doubt that 
they will put somebody else in that position and we will go after that 
person too."

Neither the U.S. comments nor the Taliban's could be independently 
verified. Another Taliban spokesman said three men were killed in 
Tuesday's attack, but not Osmani. 


This has been the bloodiest year since U.S.-led forces ousted the 
Taliban's hardline government in 2001. More than 4,000 people have died 
and the worst fighting has been in the provinces under Osmani's command.

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