Major Taliban leader killed .... or not killed

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani, (AKA Usmani) the Taliban treasurer, chief of military operations in the provinces of Uruzgan, Nimroz, Kandahar, Farah, Herat and Helm and a chap played a central role in facilitating operations involving Taliban, al-Qaeda and a group led by Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani (also chum of Mr Hekmatyr) was on his satellite telephone when an RAF R1 monitoring aircraft tracking him down. Working with an elite US special operations team, including members of the elite Delta Force, plus elite intelligence specialists from an elite unit known as elite Task Force Orange were able to call in a US elite plane (A-1o, Predator drone ?) to drop a smart bomb (missile?) onto his 4 x 4 as it left a village in the Zahre area.

This killed him, and 2 deputies with him.

The Kuwait News Agency say Coalition spokesman in Kabul Colonel Tom Collins claimed Usmani was a senior member of the Taliban inner circle,a member of the Taliban's Shura Majlis, or executive council, and the former foreign minister for the Taliban. He said, this was ,"a major achievement in the fight against extremists and their terrorist networks". CNN report that The military is "very sure" it killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani although it can't provide visual proof as his body was "obliterated" in Tuesday's attack on the vehicle .

"He was hit by a precision air strike. The vehicle was destroyed and all the occupants were obliterated," Tim Collins said. "We had him under observation for a good while, we knew he was in the vehicle. When that vehicle moved out of that built up area he was in, that's when we hit it."

Collins said Osmani was identified through forensic analysis, but not through DNA tests. He said the type of analysis performed was classified information.

Confusingly al Jazeera report that "Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was really killed with his companion Maulavi Abdul Zahir Baloushi and a third unidentified person."

The Taliban through Qari Yousef Ahmadi deny reports of Osmani's death but not the incident, when they claim a low-ranking commander Mullah Abdul Zahir had been killed with 3 other Taliban fighters.

Osmani was captured in 2002 but was released by "mistake" 4 weeks later.

Osmani is from from the Taleban spiritual capital Kandahar, and taught in the same madrassa that Mullah Mohammed Omar used to teach in before the emergence of Taliban in 1994.

Mullah Akhtar Usmani appeared (see pic) on Pakistani television, on June 15th, 2005 and claimed he was in touch with Mullah Omar and he said bin Laden was, "thanks be to God … absolutely fine, in good health and fit," Usmani also said the Taliban is reorganized and it,

"is in all areas [of Afghanistan]. In some areas, it is working more; in some areas, it is working less. However, it is present and working in all provinces… Almost 80 percent of the [Afghan] people are with us; they were not in the past, but now they are because when they consider U.S. atrocities and actions, they come to understand the United States is their enemy… Now our fighting is increasing. It may increase manifold this year... We also have weapons. We do not need anything."

His aide Abdul Latif Hakimi frequently gives interviews from the Pakistani city of Quetta. This has caused the US Ambassador in Kabul Zalmay Khalilzad to ask rhetorically why , “If GEO TV can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country, which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces, not find them?” [Reuters, 6/18/2005]





Students of the writings of Osama bin Laden will recall his words published in the Al-Jihaad Newsletter, Issue No. 4, 22 June 2000.

"Any aggression by the United States today against Afghanistan would not be against Afghanistan itself, but against the Afghanistan that hoists the banner of Islam in the world, the true, mujahid Islam, which fights for the sake of God… Allah has blessed Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan… They were able to unify the country under the Taliban and under the leadership of Amir ul-Mu'mineen [Commander of the Faithful] Mulanna [our Mullah] Omar. So today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world that has the Shari'ah. Therefore, it is compulsory upon Muslims all over the world to help Afghanistan. And to make hijra to this land, because it is from this land that we will dispatch our armies to smash all kuffar all over the world."

bin Ladin said Afghanistan would be the site of "one of Islam's immortal battles." "Under the leadership of our mujahid Amir … Mullah Muhammad Omar," bin Laden wrote, "we are firm on the path of jihad for the cause of God. The United States was(is) not against me. It was not even against the Taliban. It was(is) against Islam."(see PBS interview......)

Do you have a message for the American people?

"I say to them that they have put themselves at the mercy of a disloyal government, and this is most evident in Clinton's administration ... . We believe that this administration represents Israel inside America."

Earlier this week the French government announced that it would withdraw its 200 special (elite?) forces (FFL) from Afghanistan at the start of 2007 . This coincides with the announcement of a TV documentary,"Bin Laden, the failings of a manhunt", by Emmanuel Razavi and Eric de Lavarene to be aired on cable TV in March 2007. It is claimed this film shows French special forces in Afghanistan had al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in their sights twice about three years ago, but their U.S. superiors never ordered them to fire.

French armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck said "that never happened" when asked about the bin Laden sightings.

Emmanuel Razavi is French (pere) / Iranian and left Teheran with the Shah, he published by Paris Match,(pic) "Afghanistan, the French on the track of Bin Laden" for which he was nominated for the prestigious Prix Bayeux Calvados of the War Correspondents in 2004. He has also published "Moslem Brothers: the threat " Editions Jean Cyril Godefroy December 31, 2004

Pic of FFL Para regiment with camouflage painted M82A2 Barrett specially adapted sniper rifles which use 1/2 " BMG (12.7 x 99mm)rounds and is lethal over 1800 metres.

UPDATE 27/12

Robert Lindsay has more information here but the proof of Osmani's death still relies on unconfirme claims by US forces.