PESHAWAR, April 19: A Taliban commander blamed for the deadliest attack on US troops since they entered Afghanistan has been killed in a shootout with security forces in Pakistan, US and Pakistani officials said.

Police killed Ahmad Shah, also known as Mullah Ismail, at a roadblock near Peshawar, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said.

All three officials spoke to the official US news agency, The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity.

US and Afghan officials have described Shah as the leader of Taliban militants who ambushed a group of US commandos in June 2005 and shot down a Chinook helicopter sent to rescue them. Sixteen US Special Forces’ personnel died on the helicopter.

Jehanzeb Khan, a police official in Badhber said police responding to a call about a kidnapping on April 10 set up a roadblock to check vehicles and opened fire on one car when the driver tried to speed away. He said two kidnappers were killed and their victim, an Afghan national, was freed unharmed.

He said the dead men carried papers that identified them as Haroon and Noor Agha.

But the senior Pakistani intelligence official said the papers were false and further investigation had identified one of them as Shah.

“Mullah Ismail (Shah) was the commander whose men shot down the Chinook helicopter,” the official said. He said Shah was suspected of working closely with Al Qaeda militants in the border region.

The US officials confirmed Shah’s death in Pakistan, but did not provide further details.—AP