KABUL: U.S.-led troops have killed a wanted Taliban commander in an air strike in Afghanistan’s southwestern province of Badghis, U.S. and Afghan officials said on Monday.
Violence has reached its worst level in Afghanistan ever since the Taliban, ousted in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, made a comeback in 2005 despite growing number of foreign troops. The Taliban commander, Mullah Dastagir, along with eight other militants were killed in a raid on a village near Turkmenistan’s border on Sunday night, the officials said.
Dastagir was behind a series of attacks in Badghis, including an ambush in which 13 Afghan soldiers were killed last November, they added. Before that ambush, Dastagir had been jailed, but was released by order of President Hamid Karzai, a defence ministry official said. The U.S. military confirmed the air strike and the casualties including Dastagir’s killing. The Taliban could not be reached for comment.
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