Late to the gate with this one:

“The Taliban’s most prominent military commander, a one-legged fighter who orchestrated an ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings, was killed in a U.S.-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

Mullah Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence service. NATO confirmed his death, calling it “a serious blow” to the insurgency.”

That’s an understatement. Dadullah was an A-1 target and on everyone’s clip board. Of course a capture would have yielded good intel, but hey, if you won’t go peacefully.

Unfortunately as it is with leaders there are under-leaders and his protégé will soon rise up and we’ll have to swat him down as well.

However, Dudullah’s demise is significant, if not really surprising. He was the main figure in the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, and more of a “Al Capone” type, always squawking in front of the media and going farther than his compadres would have liked with beheadings and whatnot. Bascially he was becoming liability.

Makes me think that perhaps our guys and the Afghans didn’t receive a little tip off to his whereabouts.

Nevertheless, scratch another target, onwards and upwards!

Crossposted at Macsmind