NATO airstrike kills Taliban commander, official says

NATO-led troops killed a key Taliban commander today in an airstrike during an offensive to retake a southern Afghan town overrun by militants, a spokesman for the alliance said.

Col. Tom Collins said the strike near the town of Musa Qala killed a “high-level Taliban leader” and was conducted in “full coordination with the government.” He did not identify the suspected leader.

Residents, however, identified him as Mullah Ghafour and said he was killed along with an unknown number of Taliban fighters.

Residents said hundreds of townsfolk had fled Musa Qala, fearful of a NATO attack on the Taliban insurgents who had hoisted their trademark white flag over the Helmand province town’s ransacked government center.

NATO’s outgoing Afghanistan commander, British Gen. David Richards, said Saturday that “very surgical and deliberate” force would be used if needed to solve the crisis in Musa Qala. Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said, “If there is a need for an operation, there will be one.”

Collins said Saturday that no NATO forces were in the town. NATO troops left in October after the government and village elders signed a peace agreement. He said NATO had reports that Taliban militants had reinforced their defensive positions.

Abdul Baqi, who fled Musa Qala with five family members Saturday, said residents feared a bloody clash was imminent after the Taliban fighters swarmed the town Wednesday and Thursday, temporarily taking village elders hostage.

British troops fought intense battles with Taliban fighters in Musa Qala in the second half of last year. The clashes caused widespread damage to the surrounding area of about 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom were forced to flee.

British forces left in October after elders and the Helmand governor struck a truce that turned over security to local leaders and barred NATO forces from the town.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said the Taliban took over Musa Qala in response to NATO attacks that he said violated that agreement -- an apparent reference to a NATO airstrike outside the town that killed a senior militant leader and a number of his deputies late last month.

NATO said the Taliban was never party to the agreement.

“It is very clear that the Taliban are acting against the wishes of the people of Musa Qala,” a NATO statement said.

Richards left his post today and was succeeded by U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeil, who now oversees more than 35,500 NATO-led troops.