A NATO-led airstrike in southern Afghanistan this week killed up to 30 Taliban fighters including two commanders, the governor of the troubled Kandahar province said on Sunday.| Counted right thumbs, I'll bet. The commanders were prolly identified by these. |
| Beats counting noses ... |
| So the Lung guys got it in for the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat guys, eh? Lol. |
“According to intelligence reports, we’ve killed 30 Taliban including some of their commanders,” Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid told a news conference on Sunday, four days after the raid.
He said Taliban regional commanders Mullah Abdul Wali and Mullah Sher Jan, and low-ranking rebel commander Mullah Abdul Nafi, were among those killed in the air raid.Hundreds of ISAF troops backed by Afghan security forces this week launched a major operation in Panjwayi, a known Taliban stronghold where in mid-September troops fought a major battle with insurgents. ISAF on Friday dropped leaflets on insurgent positions warning them to leave the area before troops force them to quit. The governor, citing security reasons, did not provide details on the latest operation, named “Baaz Tsuka”.
A senior provincial official said that the former religious police minister in the ousted Taliban government had been killed in a NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan. Taliban sources confirmed the raid but said the man, Abdul Wali, the radical Islamic movementÂ’s one-time minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, was not killed. Wali along with 30 other militants, was killed three days ago in the NATO raid in Panjwai district of Kandahar, Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid said.
“We have credible information that Abdul Wali has been killed in the operation,” Khalid told a news conference in Kandahar. Authorities have not recovered Wali’s body, he added.Several Taliban sources in Kandahar said 13 militants died in the attack, but added Wali was not one. NATO said it was not aware of Wali’s reported killing.
Meanwhile, an Afghan civilian was killed and three others injured on Sunday in a suicide car bombing targeting a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the bomb attack on the American convoy. “There were no victims among the ISAF forces,” added the spokesman. The attack took place in the Nadir Shah Kot district, according to a spokesman for the governor of the province, which borders Afghanistan and where there are frequent attacks on foreign troops.