Airstrike killed Taliban shadow governor Sheikh Dost Mohammed
KABUL, March 4 (INP) The Taliban's most vaunted commander in Nuristan and Kunar
provinces, Sheikh Dost Mohammed, has been killed along with three other Taliban figures in a US drone strike, according to Bokhdi News, citing an
official from the Afghan and NATO Military Coordination Office. Sheikh Dost Mohammed has served as the top Taliban leader and shadow governor in
Nuristan province for several years, and his insurgent network maintains deep ties to regional Salafist movements and al Qaeda.
The alleged
drone strike took place early Saturday morning in the unstable Ghaziabad district in Kunar province. Among others said to be killed in the strike were
Taliban operatives Akhtar Mohammad and one of Dost Mohammed's relatives, Nematullah Haidar.
International Security Assistant Forces (ISAF)
issued a brief statement confirming that Afghan and Coalition forces killed three insurgents and wounded another during an operation in Ghaziabad
district, Kunar province, on March 2. The ISAF statement further added: "The security force positively identified the militants engaging in insurgent
activity in an isolated area away from civilians. After ensuring no civilians were in the vicinity, the security force engaged the armed insurgents,
killing three and wounding one."
Dost Mohammed has previously been reported killed numerous times since 2009, and the latest report about his
death should be viewed with caution.
Since abandoning several outposts in the more remote border districts of Nuristan province in October
2009, Afghan and Coalition forces have continued operations against an entrenched Taliban network spanning Kunar and Nuristan provinces. Last May, a
Coalition operation killed Sheikh Jamil ur Rahman, the Taliban's deputy shadow governor for Nuristan province, as he and associate Abdul Hakim were
traveling through Nuristan's Waygal district.
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