US military 'sure' they killed top Taliban commander

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 Taliban spokesman disputed the claim.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was regarded as one of three top associates of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

His death could hinder the militia’s plans for an expected offensive early next year that would extend the surge in violence seen in Afghanistan in 2006.

Osmani was killed on Tuesday by a US airstrike while travelling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the US military said.

Two associates also were killed, it said.

The military announced the raid on Saturday but offered no visual proof to support the claim, saying the vehicle Osmani was travelling in was destroyed and all the occupants “obliterated”.

“We killed him five days ago,” US military spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said yesterday. “We checked various sources, and we are very, very sure it was him in that vehicle.”

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied that Osmani had been killed, saying the airstrike instead killed Mullah Abdul Zahir, a group commander, and three other Taliban fighters.