Afghan Taleban commander killed

BBC

The Taleban's top military commander in Afghanistan, Mullah Dadullah, has been killed in fighting in the south of the country, officials say.

They say he died in a clash with Afghan and Western forces in Helmand province.

Soldiers took the body to the city of Kandahar, where it was shown to reporters.

The BBC's Afghanistan correspondent says Mullah Dadullah's death will be a major blow to the Taleban, who were slow to respond to the reports.

Mullah Dadullah's name has been linked with the beheading of suspected spies, controlling the guerrilla war in Helmand Province, dispatching suicide bombers and the kidnapping of westerners, including an Italian journalist and two French aid workers, both of which have since been released.

Mullah Dadullah recently told the BBC that he had hundreds of suicide bombers awaiting his orders to launch an offensive against foreign troops. Suicide bombings in Afghanistan have soared since late 2005.

Our correspondent, Alastair Leithead, says the commander has produced videos showing beheadings of foreign hostages.

Previous reports of his death or capture had proved untrue, but officials displayed the body to confirm the killing.

It was not immediately clear if the commander was killed as part a major operation in Helmand province launched in early March by Nato's International Security Assistance Force and Afghan troops.

For many years Mullah Dadullah has been known to be one of the most brutal and extreme Taleban leaders.

In the last 12 months he has become perhaps the most significant military commander in Afghanistan, certainly in the south where the close quarters fighting has been most intense, our correspondent says.

But it is difficult to asses the impact of his death on the insurgency, our correspondent says, because the Taleban's command structures are loose and fighters often operate in small, self-contained units......