US-led raid kills top Taliban commander

THE Taliban’s most prominent military commander, a one-legged fighter who orchestrated an ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings, was killed in a US-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

Mullah Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence service. NATO confirmed his death, calling it a serious blow to the insurgency.

Dadullah is one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders killed since the fall of the hard-line regime following the US-led invasion in 2001. His death represents a major victory for the Afghan government and the international coalition struggling to contain a Taliban-led insurgency wracking the south and east.