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No.2 Taliban Official Dies
The second most powerful man in Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, Mullah Mohammed Rabbani, died of cancer Monday, officials said. He was 44.
Rabbani, who headed the Taliban's governing ministers' council, died in neighboring Pakistan, where he had been receiving treatment. A U.N. aircraft took his body to his native Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban are headquartered.
"The Taliban has lost a great leader, a brave and important mujahedeen (holy warrior)," Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told reporters in the Afghan capital.
Rabbani had been ill for several months and had not been seen in public for much of this year. But he was considered a powerful man in the Taliban movement, second only to the reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Afghanistan, and Rabbani will be buried with full Taliban honors, Muttawakil said. Omar will attend the funeral.
Rabbani was among the first wave of Taliban who swept into Kabul in September 1996, driving warring Islamic factions led by former defense chief Ahmed Shah Massood and President Burhanuddin Rabbani from the capital.
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