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QUETTA, Pakistan (CBS/AP) Dec. 23, 2006 — 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.
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.
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. He was part of a group of “co-equals” at the top of the Taliban leadership chain just under Mullah Omar, U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins said.
Collins said Osmani had been “utilizing both sides” of the Afghan-Pakistan border, and that the U.S. military had been tracking him “for a while.”
Although the U.S. said Osmani was an associate of bin Laden, Omar and Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Collins said he didn’t know the last time Osmani had contact with any of the three.
More info to follow …
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
