A grisly video circulating in Pakistan allegedly shows a child beheading Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official killed in a December air strike in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has arrested former Taliban defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, regarded as a top figure in the Afghan insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

Nato-led troops and Afghan forces detained a prominent Taliban commander during a raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said today.

A US airstrike in southern Afghanistan hit a top Taliban military commander, the highest-ranking figure from the hardline militia to be killed since 2001, according to the US military.

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 US military said today.