Daily Times

PESHAWAR: A senior Taliban commander, who had been declared dead several times in the past, was officially confirmed as having been killed in an air strike in northern Afghanistan by officials of the militant group.

A senior Taliban official informed sources that Mullah Abdul Salam Akhund, who commanded Taliban forces in Kunduz, was one of three fighters killed in a weekend strike by an unmanned aircraft.

“He was on a journey a few days ago and stopped at a house at Dashte Archi town when the drone fired missiles,” said the official.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Akhund´s death in a statement.

A US military spokesman said that a strike had been conducted in Kunduz on Sunday, but the command did “not have confirmation of the results”.

A senior police commander in northern Afghanistan, Sher Aziz Kamawal, said that the strike had killed Akhund along with eight other Taliban members.

Akhund, who oversaw the Taliban offensive that briefly seized Kunduz city in 2015, had previously been reported dead several times by Afghan officials.

This time however, his apparent death was confirmed by top Taliban officials, including a commander in the eastern province of Khost.