Got a Big Fish in Afghanistan
Charles Johnson
Sat Dec 23, 2006 at 8:23 am PST • Views: 420
No virgins for Osmani: U.S. strike kills Afghan Taliban leader.
KABUL, Afghanistan - 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 Saturday. A Taliban spokesman denied the claim.
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, the U.S. military said. Two associates also were killed, it said.
There was no immediate confirmation from Afghan officials or visual proof offered to support the claim. A U.S. spokesman said “various sources” were used to confirm Osmani’s identity.
Osmani, regarded as one of three top associates of Omar, is the highest-ranking Taliban leader the coalition has claimed to have killed or captured since U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting bin Laden.
And the Associated Press is now referring to the Islamic supremacist Taliban as an “ultraconservative militia.”
U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins described Osmani’s death as a “big loss” for the ultraconservative militia.
Frank says: