Top Taliban commander killed in roadside blast in Afghanistan

A top Taliban commander, Abdul Wali Mohmand, also known as Omar Khalid Khorasani, has been killed in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan on Monday.

Before his death, Khorasani was one of the most wanted terrorist commander after the US State Department placed a $3 million bounty on his head for information on his whereabouts.

The State Department described him as a former journalist and poet who studied at several madrasas in Pakistan and had posted on its website that the Taliban commander was behind some of the deadliest attacks in recent years.

According to reports announcing his death, Khorasani’s vehicle was targeted by a roadside bomb in the Afghan province of Paktika, on the border with Pakistan.

The Pakistani Taliban has also Monday confirmed the death and said the group would soon issue a longer statement on the killing.

Two other commanders were also killed in the bombing which came a week after a US drone strike in Kabul killed al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Read also:Taliban forces arrest Afghani fashion model for ‘insulting’ Islam

Khorasani is thought to have been close to both al-Qaeda founding leader Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, but it is not known if there is any link between the drone strike and the bombing.

Khorasani at one point broke away from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization for several Islamist groups, and formed his own group, Jamaat ul Ahrar.

His group carried out some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan, including a bombing in the eastern city of Lahore in 2016 that killed at least 75 people from the minority Christian community on an Easter Sunday.

Khorasani later dissolved Jamaat ul Ahrar and rejoined the TTP in a group’s drive to reunify several estranged groups.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now