New Delhi: Top Taliban leader Mansoor Dadullah has been killed in Balochistan on Monday in a gunbattle with Pakistani forces.
Dadullah was killed in fighting with security forces in Helmand's Girishk district on Saturday night. NATO issued a statement confirming the feared Taliban commander had been eliminated in a US-led operation.
The one-legged Dadullah has been reported to have been captured or killed several times in the past, but this time the authorities appeared sure he was dead.
He had succeeded his brother, Mullah Dadullah, after Mullah Dadullah was killed during a military operation in Helmand province last May.
Dadullah was a member of Taliban's 10 member leadership council and close to the movement's fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.
However, the Taliban said in a statement in December last year that they had sacked Mansoor Dadullah because he disobeyed orders of the Islamic Emirate of the Taliban.
The death of Dadullah represents the biggest setback to the Taliban command since the insurgency began, after its Islamic militia government was toppled by US-backed forces in 2001.
Comments
0 comment