NationStates Jolt Archive

That's what Afghan and US/NATO forces are claiming. If true, then it is significant because Dadullah is pretty high up in the chain of command of taliban.

However, it is to be noted that there were similar claims made earlier which turned out to be false. Even this one is disputed by the taliban. Let's see...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/world/asia/13cnd-afghan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Top Taliban Commander Is Killed in Clash
By TAIMOOR SHAH and CARLOTTA GALL

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 13 — The Taliban’s top operational commander, Mullah Dadullah, has been killed in southern Afghanistan, and his body was displayed by Afghan officials in this southern city today.

The commander was killed in a joint operation by Afghan security forces and American and NATO troops in Helmand Province, the governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khaled, said. News agencies reported that the Taliban was killed in fighting in the Nahri Sarraj district, a strategic area of Helmand Province that the Afghan intelligence service reported Saturday had been cleared of Taliban after an operation this week. A statement released by NATO confirmed his death.

“Tell your honorable people, and journalists, to live in peace now — the people have now been rescued from the cruelty of this wild butcher,” Mr. Khaled said.

“This is a huge loss for the Taliban; it will certainly weak their activities” the governor said. He then led reporters s to see the body, laid on a metal hospital bed, covered in a pink sheet on the verandah of the governor’s palace.

Mullah Dadullah, an amputee, was recognizable in part from his missing left leg and thick black beard. He had been shot in the head and in the stomach, the governor said. His face and chest were bloodied. He wore traditional Afghan clothes and an ordinary shoe on his good leg.

He was one of the most-wanted Taliban leaders, close to the leader Mullah Muhammad Omar, and with links to Al Qaeda. Mullah Dadullah was considered one of the most important operational commanders, organizing groups of fighters and obtaining weapons supplies and money across much of the south and southeast of Afghanistan. In the last year he was known to be traveling in Pakistan’s tribal areas to coordinate the insurgency and recruit fighters.

Mullah Dadullah is thought to be responsible for ordering numerous assassinations of clerics, government officials and health and education workers, as well as kidnappings and beheadings, including those of foreigners. And he is tied to many suicide bombings that have killed or wounded hundreds of Afghans and dozens of foreigners in the last year and a half.

A longtime mujahedeen and senior commander of the Taliban, Mullah Dadullah fought on the frontlines as the Taliban seized control of much of the country in the 1990s. He has been accused by human rights groups of massacring civilians during a campaign in the mid-1990s in the central Afghanistan province of Bamiyan, which was populated mostly by Shiites who were resisting the Taliban advance.

In 2001, he was fighting in northern Afghanistan and became trapped with thousands of Taliban fighters in the city of Kunduz when the United States began its campaign against the Taliban government. He agreed to surrender, along with the senior Taliban military commander in the north, Mullah Fazel and drove out to meet with the Northern Alliance commander, Abdul Rashid Dostum, in December 2001 in Mazar-i-Sharif.

While Mullah Fazel arranged the surrender of thousands of foreign and Afghan fighters, Mullah Dadullah escaped. He later said in an interview with the BBC that he had paid a large amount of money to a Northern Alliance commander and escaped into the mountains, crossing the length of Afghanistan to reach the Taliban heartland and his home region in southern Afghanistan.

Mullah Dadullah is thought to have taken refuge in Pakistan for the next few years. As the Taliban re-emerged as a fighting force, he began to give interviews to selected journalists, including two interviews with the Arabic satellite television network Al Jazeera. He also released propaganda videos vowing to send waves of suicide bombers and mujahedeen into Afghanistan to overthrow the government of Afghanistan. In the last year he has been moving regularly in southern Afghanistan coordinating the increasingly fierce fighting.

Interesting to note that he escaped from Kunduz. The fiasco at Kunduz by the US is probably the biggest blunder that has come to haunt the US/NATO in Afghanistan.

Here's the taliban denial

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070513/wl_afp/afghanistanunresttalibandadullah
But a Taliban spokesman rejected the government's claim. "This is nothing more than propaganda," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.

"They claim they will show the body of Mullah Dadullah to media -- we are waiting to see that. We also promise to present to the media a fresh voice recording of Mullah Dadullah."

The government of President Hamid Karzai "want to boost the morale of their losing soldiers in the south with such propaganda," he said.

Doh! Dadullah dead? D’know... do you?

Came across this very interesting piece on how he was killed. Seems like it was the Brits who killed him after all.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1845387.ece
THE one-legged Taliban commander whose death was hailed as a coup for coalition forces in Afghanistan was killed in an attack by British troops rather than Americans and Afghans as previously claimed.

Mullah Dadullah, the bearded warlord who lost his leg fighting the invasion of Soviet “infidels” in the 1980s, was cornered by a squadron from Britain’s Special Boat Service (SBS), after a remarkable surveillance operation mounted against his brother. The SBS has been charged with carrying out special operations in Afghanistan while the SAS concentrates on Iraq.

Until now, the killing had been attributed to a joint American-Af-ghan force of special operation troops but defence sources revealed last week that the US contribution, although a key to success, was limited to intelligence from a secret unit called Task Force Orange, which was monitoring a satellite phone used by Dadullah.

How the task force came to be tracking the powerful mullah’s movements is a story of military cunning and opportunism. It began with an exchange of prisoners which, at the time, had all the appearance of a humiliating setback for coalition forces.

The release of Daniele Mastro-giacomo, an Italian journalist kidnapped by Taliban militants in March, in exchange for five Taliban fighters – including Mullah Shah Mansoor, Dadul lah’s brother – raised eyebrows throughout the region.

It was a doubly controversial deal. First, it did not include Mas-trogiacomo’s Afghan translator – and to calm dissent in government ranks President Hamid Kar-zai was obliged to promise that it was a “one-off”. At the same time, the release of such a high-ranking Taliban leader as Dadullah’s brother appeared to go against coalition policy.

Task Force Orange took advantage of the situation by using sophisticated signals technology to monitor Mansoor’s movements. In this way he was followed back to a Taliban training base in Quetta, Pakistan.

A satellite phone used by Dadullah’s men then came under surveillance and the signal was followed when the group set off two weeks ago from Quetta to Afghanistan. The convoy led by Dadullah – and believed to include Mansoor – was tracked to Brahmcha in the southern Helmand province close to the border with Pakistan.

On the basis of such intelligence, Task Force Orange would normally have summoned Delta Force, the American special operations group, to launch a strike on the mudwalled compound in which the fighters were hiding. Delta was occupied elsewhere, however, and it fell to crack British troops – SBS’s C squadron – to finish the job.

A reconnaissance team in a Supacat 6x6 all-terrain vehicle moved in to watch the compound and work out how best to attack it. It was decided that an airstrike by itself would not be certain of killing Dadullah so the rest of the squadron, in two Chinook helicopters, was called in.

Alerted by the noise, the Taliban defenders began shooting at the helicopters which, in addition to the British soldiers, carried a number of Afghan troops. The element of surprise was lost and a four-hour battle ensued.

The sky lit up with tracer bullets and rocket-propelled grenade fire as the Taliban, although fewer than 20 in number, put up spirited resistance before being overwhelmed. “It was traditional infantry tactics,” said a defence source. “Give fire and run, give fire and run, constantly manoeuvring for the best position.”

Dadullah appeared to have been killed by one of the US-trained Afghan soldiers.:D The two wounds to his chest and one to the back of his head had all the hallmarks of a classic US special operations shooting – a so-called “double tap” to the chest and a “finisher” shot to the head.

Also among the dead were suspected members of Al-Qaeda, said the sources. The dead were believed to have included Mansoor but this was denied by the Taliban who have named him as their new military leader.

The Taliban claimed “an American spy” had hidden Dadullah’s false leg to prevent him from taking part in the fight.:eek: :p

This did not seem credible, however, and the Afghan intelligence service gave the game away by releasing a statement announcing that Dadullah was followed from the Pakistani border “with [the] most modern intelligence technology”.

Dadullah’s death was a significant triumph for coalition forces. As a senior Taliban commander, he won a reputation for ruthless-ness after ordering the massacre of thousands of Hazaras in the northern Bamiyan region. More recently he had appeared to try to mimic the actions of hardline Iraqi insurgents such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by putting a video of a 12-year-old boy beheading an American spy on the internet. Zarqawi was also tracked down and killed as a result of a Task Force Orange intelligence operation.

Four of the 50 British commandos who took part in the battle were wounded but only one had to be brought back to Britain.

In spite of Taliban threats of more suicide bombings, a series of lethal allied attacks and a fall in logistical support for the Taliban from Pakistan appear to have conspired against the long-promised spring offensive. The coalition forces can only hope things stay that way.

- A British soldier from the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards was killed and four others were injured in a Taliban attack in Garmsir, Helmand, the Ministry of Defence announced yesterday.

Rhizomic enemy, not requiring a true hierarchy to function.
This means nothing...welcome to fourth generation warfare.

Nice work SBS.

Rhizomic enemy, not requiring a true hierarchy to function.

For AQ - yes. For Taliban - no.

The reason for taliban's resurgence is that almost all of its leadership escaped intact from Afg and very few have been caught/killed so far.



This means nothing...welcome to fourth generation warfare.

It means something to the relatives of all the killed Hazaras...

Unfortunately, killing of Taliban leaders is not on equal par with say, killing a General in any kind of regular army.

Taliban fighters have great autonomy over thier own actions. They don't need any central command to direct them in thier objectives. Authority works at a much lower level in the new generation of warfare.

For AQ - yes. For Taliban - no.

The reason for taliban's resurgence is that almost all of its leadership escaped intact from Afg and very few have been caught/killed so far.



It means something to the relatives of all the killed Hazaras...

The Taliban is composed of Mujahadeen, who are Rhizomic and trained to be cellular and not requiring a direct Hierarchy...the Taliban might have made itslef a political organization by seizing the Afghan government seat of power...but at its origin is a paramilitary group that can function without a head, no hierarchy required...until after the battle is over.

You know the enemy, you know the tactics...you dont need a command structure.
4th generation Warfare, sorry but that is the way it is.

The relatives and emotionally concerned are not a factor in the logic of observing your enemy.

Killing a handful of would be warlords means nothing. He has already been replaced.

D’know... do you?yeah..

who is your DADullah (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5050497818010860333&q=genre%3Ascience_fiction+is%3Afree) ?

I think Osama himself is either dead or dying as we never see him, only his deputies.

I think Osama himself is either dead or dying as we never see him, only his deputies.

Ah but he doesn't need to be alive. He's symbolic; the face of terrorism. If they can create the illusion that he is alive, they're winning. They don't need him to be alive, just the illusion that he is. It's enough to keep the momentum of their "cause".

You know the enemy, you know the tactics...you dont need a command structure.
4th generation Warfare, sorry but that is the way it is.

The relatives and emotionally concerned are not a factor in the logic of observing your enemy.

Killing a handful of would be warlords means nothing. He has already been replaced.

Sort of forces you to kill all of them, doesn't it?