Osama’s close associate killed

KABUL: US-led forces have killed a close associate of Osama bin Laden in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan in a major blow to the deadly Taliban-led insurgency.

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani's vehicle was struck in Helmand province near the Pakistan border after coalition forces received credible information about his hideout.

"Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, a senior member of the Taliban's inner circle, was killed on December 19 in Helmand province," coalition forcs spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said.

"Osmani was in the top ring of the Taliban leadership and he was also a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," he said referring to an Afghan warlord and US-declared terorist.

"His death is a major achievement in the fight against extemists and their terrorist networks," Collins said.

Osmani was reportedly a key commander and strategist for remnants of the Taliban leading a deadly insurgency against foreign troops in Afganistan working to stabilise the war-ravaged nation.

He was killed instantly in his vehicle in a deserted area of the province, along with two unidentified associates, it added.

A Taliban spokesman, however, denied Osmani had been killed, saying the airstrike claimed low-ranking commander and three other miitants. "Mullah Akhtar Osmani is alive and inside Afghanistan," spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi said from an undisclosed location.

"Three days ago in a NATO operation surrounding Helmand province, a Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Zahir and three other Taliban were martyred." he said.