Air strike kills top Taliban tactician

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KABUL, Afghanistan -- A U.S. air strike near the Pakistan border killed the Taliban's southern military commander, an associate of Osama bin Laden and heir to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, U.S. and Afghan officials said yesterday.

Akhtar Mohammed Osmani's vehicle was hit by a U.S. air strike Tuesday as he traveled in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the spokesman said. Two of his associates also were killed.

U.S. and Afghan officials said the strike was a major victory.

Ahmed Rashid, a leading author on the Taliban, said Osmani's death could disrupt planning for a Taliban offensive early next year, designed to extend the recent surge of violence across Afghanistan.

Osmani played an instrumental role in some of the Taliban's most notorious excesses -- including the demolition of the ancient Buddha statues in Bamiyan and the trial of Christian aid workers in 2001, Mr. Rashid said.

He also was one of three top associates of Mullah Omar, and among the first supporters of bin Laden within the militant Islamic militia's top ranks, Mr. Rashid said.

A Taliban spokesman denied that Osmani was dead, but a provincial police chief and Afghanistan's Interior Ministry confirmed the killing. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary called it "a big achievement."

A U.S. spokesman said the death was confirmed through multiple sources.

As the Taliban's chief military commander in southern Afghanistan, Osmani played a "central role in facilitating terrorist operations" including roadside bombings, suicide attacks and ambushes against Afghan and international forces, said Col. Tom Collins, the U.S. military spokesman.

"Mullah Osmani is the highest-ranking Taliban leader we've ever killed," Col. Collins said. "He was the chief of the Taliban's military operations, so his death is very significant and will hurt the Taliban's operations."