Afghan Taleban commander killed

Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's chief military commander, has been killed in southern Afghanistan according to government officials.

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent, was shown a body the authorities said was Dadullah's on Sunday morning.

The body was shown to media in the governor's compound in Kandahar.

A sheet was removed from the body up to the knee to show that part of one of the legs was missing. Dadullah lost a leg fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s.

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KANDAHAR — The West-backed Afghan government boasted on Sunday, May 13, killing top Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah during fierce fighting overnight in southern Afghanistan, an announcement later confirmed by Taliban.

"Dadullah and his brother have been killed during an operation in Helmand province," the Interior Ministry said in a statement cited by Agence France Presse (AFP).

Afghan authorities showed the bloodied and bullet-pierced body of the feared Taliban commander to the media.

The corpse was also missing the lower part of one leg -- one of the trademarks of Dadullah.

Kandahar provincial governor Asadullah Khalid said the one-legged commander was killed in fierce clashes with Afghan troops.

He added that his killing was "in an operation carried out based on very accurate information."

"After the operation we picked his body from among other bodies. The appearance, specific signs match those of Mullah Dadullah."

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Pakistan, who recently visited Afghanistan and produced documentaries on Dadullah and his military tactics, said high-level Taliban sources confirmed the killing to him.

The sources added that Dadullah's brother, 35-yaer-old Bakhet, would now assume command of the Taliban fighters.

Top Commander

Afghan intelligence agency spokesman Sayed Ansari described Dadullah as the "biggest Taliban commander ever killed."

"He was the commander of commanders."

Dadullah, 40, was one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders to be killed since the former rulers of Afghanistan were driven from power by the US-led invasion in late 2001.

Carrying a multi-million-dollar bounty, he was a member of Taliban's 10-member leadership council and reputed to be close to its top leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera aired on April 25, Dadullah said bin Laden personally orchestrated a daring February attack on Bagram military base during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Based in the south, which sees most of Taliban-related operations, The key military strategist was the only well-known face for the media from the Taliban leadership.

He had regular interviews with the media, claiming last year he had 12,000 fighters under his command in southern Afghanistan and hundreds of men ready to carry out suicide bombings.

Media outlets used to describe him as "Zarqawi of Afghanistan," referring to the resemblance in the tactics he used in fighting the US and NATO troops with those pursued in Iraq.

He was involved in various beheadings, most recently of two Afghan men captured with an Italian journalist who was later freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners.

While he was known for brutality towards his foes, he had a reputation for being "brave and faithful to comrades," said analyst Wahid Mujda, who met Dadullah when the Taliban were in power.

He recalled Dadullah asking the foreign ministry, where Mujda was working at the time, to charter a plane for one of his wounded fighters to be flown to Pakistan for treatment.

"While he was asking the deputy foreign minister to get a plane to take one of his wounded fighters to Pakistan, he received a phone call informing him that his man had died," Mujda remembered.

Dadullah's answer was, "Oh, God bless him, he made my life easier and also his own."

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