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Senior Taliban leader killed, U.S. says
Last Updated: Saturday, December 23, 2006 | 9:07 AM ET
CBC News
U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Saturday that they have killed a top Taliban commander who had links with al-Qaeda and the extremist group's leader, Osama bin Laden.
Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani and two associates were killed in an air strike on their car in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
Osmani is described as the highest-ranking Taliban leader that the coalition has claimed to have killed or captured since U.S. forces were sent to Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001 for sheltering bin Laden.
It's believed Osmai was the Taliban's military chief in the south, including Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been operating this year.
Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said the Taliban leader "had been deeply involved in terrorist acts against the people of Afghanistan, NATO and the government."
But a statement from the Taliban says Osmani is not dead and that he wasn't even in the area where the raid happened.
News of the airstrike comes as Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of the defence staff, makes his way to Afghanistan to spend the holiday with the troops. He will arrive in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve.
Hillier says he'll stop in Kabul, as well as Kandahar province to visit the provincial reconstruction team.
Elsewhere, about 100 Canadians are taking part in a joint operation by the Afghan National Army and NATO forces in the Panjwaii district, west of Kanahar city.
The mission began a week ago, and the Canadian battle group commander, Lt.-Col. Omer Lavoie, says his soldiers are proceeding with caution because it can be difficult to tell the Taliban from the civilians.
"There is a mix of combatants and non-combatants, so it's certainly one of the reasons we aren't going to go in there with guns blazing," Lavoie told CBC News.
There has been no fighting yet, but NATO forces have reportedly surrounded what they believe are hundreds of Taliban fighters inside 10 square kilometres.
Canadians are stationed along the northern flank of this region near the village of Howz-e Hadad. American and British forces are deployed along the southern and western corridors.
Last Updated: Saturday, December 23, 2006 | 9:07 AM ET
CBC News
U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Saturday that they have killed a top Taliban commander who had links with al-Qaeda and the extremist group's leader, Osama bin Laden.
Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani and two associates were killed in an air strike on their car in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
Osmani is described as the highest-ranking Taliban leader that the coalition has claimed to have killed or captured since U.S. forces were sent to Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001 for sheltering bin Laden.
It's believed Osmai was the Taliban's military chief in the south, including Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been operating this year.
Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said the Taliban leader "had been deeply involved in terrorist acts against the people of Afghanistan, NATO and the government."
But a statement from the Taliban says Osmani is not dead and that he wasn't even in the area where the raid happened.
News of the airstrike comes as Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of the defence staff, makes his way to Afghanistan to spend the holiday with the troops. He will arrive in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve.
Hillier says he'll stop in Kabul, as well as Kandahar province to visit the provincial reconstruction team.
Elsewhere, about 100 Canadians are taking part in a joint operation by the Afghan National Army and NATO forces in the Panjwaii district, west of Kanahar city.
The mission began a week ago, and the Canadian battle group commander, Lt.-Col. Omer Lavoie, says his soldiers are proceeding with caution because it can be difficult to tell the Taliban from the civilians.
"There is a mix of combatants and non-combatants, so it's certainly one of the reasons we aren't going to go in there with guns blazing," Lavoie told CBC News.
There has been no fighting yet, but NATO forces have reportedly surrounded what they believe are hundreds of Taliban fighters inside 10 square kilometres.
Canadians are stationed along the northern flank of this region near the village of Howz-e Hadad. American and British forces are deployed along the southern and western corridors.
