July 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 19, 1429

KABUL, July 22: A senior Taliban commander for southern Afghanistan surrendered to Pakistani authorities and British forces killed another leader, dealing a “shattering blow” to the militant group’s leadership, the British army said on Tuesday.

Mullah Rahim, the top commander for southern Helmand province, gave himself up after British forces had killed two other Taliban leaders in little over three weeks.

Hours after his surrender, another senior Taliban commander, Abdul Rasaq, also known as “Mullah Sheikh”, was killed in a British missile strike 15km north of the town of Musa Qala in Helmand on Monday morning, the British army said in a statement. Three other militants also died.

Rasaq headed Taliban actions around Musa Qala and was active in the insurgency for a number of years, it said.

“The Taliban’s senior leadership structure has suffered a shattering blow,” British army spokesman Lt-Col Robin Matthews said in the statement.

Musa Qala town holds a symbolic importance after Taliban fighters forced British troops out of the dusty opium-trading centre in late 2006. The Taliban then seized it in February last year making it the only town of any size held by them.

Afghan, British and US forces took back Musa Qala in an offensive in December but Taliban insurgents are still active around the town.

Elsewhere, US-led coalition and Afghan forces backed by airpower killed or wounded more than 30 Taliban militants in fighting in the west of Afghanistan, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

Fighting broke out in the Bala Boluk district of Farah province on Tuesday, regional police chief Ikramuddin Yawar said.

“The toll might be more than 30 because the operation is ongoing,” Yawar said.—Reuters