KANDAHAR, Feb 4: A precision air strike by Nato-led forces killed a Taliban commander behind an insurgent takeover of the southern Afghan town of Musa Qala and several of his men on Sunday, the force and a police officer said.
The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said the man was a “high-level Taliban leader” behind the attack on Musa Qala on Thursday while a police officer from the area identified him as commander Mullah Ghafour.
He was killed in a “precision air strike” on his vehicle near the small town, Isaf spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said.
“It is a target we have been seeking for a while in the area,” he said.
Another spokesman, Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, said the Taliban chief “was well known to have commanded insurgents within the Musa Qala district and was directly responsible for the recent uprising and insurgent attacks within the village of Musa Qala.” A police officer in hiding after Taliban captured the small, remote town said on condition of anonymity that dead man was a top Taliban commander in the area, Mullah Ghafour.
“Mullah Ghafour was killed along with 10 of his men in the aerial strike.
He had arrived to visit a Taliban position being fortified in his Land Cruiser vehicle when he was targeted and killed,” he said.
The toll was not confirmed by other officials.
Ghafour had led the attack on the town after his brother was killed in an Isaf strike late January, he said.
Collins said the strike was within a five-kilometre zone around the town, capital of the district of the same name, which British forces agreed not to penetrate in a controversial deal with tribal leaders four months ago.
However the strike “was thoroughly coordinated with the Afghan army and we were given permission,” Collins said. He could not immediately say if there was anyone else in the vehicle.
An Isaf statement said several other explosions occurred after the air strike, indicating there were explosives and ammunition within the vehicle.
Taliban fighters stormed Musa Qala town late Thursday, disarming the police and occupying the district administrative centre.
The rebels alleged Isaf had violated the deal with an air strike last week which the force said killed some top Taliban leader.
Isaf denied they had broken the agreement, saying the strike was outside the exclusion zone.
It was unclear if Taliban were still holding the town centre on Sunday.
TALIBAN WARNING: The Taliban threatened a spring offensive of thousands of suicide bombers.
They said 2007 will be “the bloodiest year for foreign troops”, saying they have 2,000 suicide bombers ready to go into action when winter snows melt in a few months.
“We have made 80 per cent preparations to fight American and foreign forces and we are about to start war,” Mullah Hayatullah Khan, a 35-year-old black-bearded Taliban leader said.
Khan says the 2,000 are just 40 per cent of fighters preparing to become suicide bombers, a tactic almost unheard of here until last year as militants copied Iraq.
“Now there is great enthusiasm for suicide attacks among the Taliban and these attacks will increase,” he said.
A suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in Kandahar, killing himself but no one else, police said.
US TAKES OVER COMMAND: US Gen. Dan McNeil took over command of Nato-led troops in Afghanistan in a ceremony on Sunday.
McNeil replaced British Gen. David Richards at the helm of the 35,500-strong force at the time when the Western alliance braces for a renewed fight with Taliban militants.—Agencies
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