Local Taliban Commander Slain, U.S. Says
U.S. and Afghan forces killed a regional Taliban commander in a clash that also left an American soldier and an Afghan interpreter dead, the U.S. military said.
The Taliban commander -- identified by Afghan officials as Thor Mullah Manan -- was killed with another rebel in a firefight with coalition forces Thursday in the Dai Chopan district of the southeastern province of Zabol, the U.S. military statement said.
It said Manan was in command of three Taliban sub-commanders and responsible for the movement of equipment and personnel throughout Zabol.
The military did not identify the dead American, who became the latest in a string of U.S. combat fatalities amid an upsurge of violence in the run-up to a landmark election on Sept. 18.
About 1,100 people have been killed across Afghanistan in the last six months, including hundreds of suspected rebels.
The bodies of a man and a woman shot dead in southern Afghanistan were sent to the capital, Kabul, on Friday for identification to determine whether they were those of two Japanese tourists reported missing after crossing the border from Pakistan.
Authorities were preparing to perform autopsies on the bodies, found by villagers late Thursday on a road linking Kandahar to Pakistan.
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