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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 16, 2003

'Senior Taliban' killed in clash: Afghan officials

A senior rebel commander was among 15 Taliban fighters killed in overnight clashes with US-led forces and government troops, Afghan officials have said.


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A senior rebel commander was among 15 Taliban fighters killed in overnight clashes with US-led forces and government troops, Afghan officials have said.

The US military confirmed the death toll Monday, saying US and allied warplanes backed Afghan and US-led forces on the ground hunting remnants of the ousted Taliban and al Qaeda network.

"Fifteen Taliban were killed, including Mullah Abdur Rahim, in Maruf district," Afghan Foreign Ministry official Khalid Khan Achakzai told Reuters in the town of Spin Boldak in southern Kandahar, near the Pakistan frontier.

Rahim was a senior Taliban commander who controlled the hardline militia's forces in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban attacks have risen alarmingly in recent weeks.

He was wounded earlier this year in a clash with Afghan forces in Spin Boldak, and a deputy was appointed to assist him by the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Khalid Pashtun, an official in the southern Kandahar province where Maruf is located, later confirmed Rahim was among the dead.

"I can confirm that ... Abdur Rahim has been killed. He is the leader of that group. His body is still in Maruf district, and we will try to bring his body back to Kandahar (city) airport."

Kandahar was the former stronghold of the Taliban.

But Mullah Abdul Samad, an intelligence officer in the radical Taliban regime, earlier denied the death of Rahim.

"There have been deaths on both sides but it is wrong that Abdur Rahim has been killed. It is mere propaganda," he said.

Source: agencies


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