70 Taliban leaders killed in precision strikes: US

WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): Over 70 senior Taliban commander in the country said on Wednesday.

“These strikes represent one of the largest blows to Taliban leadership in the last year. The cumulative effects will be felt nationwide for quite some time,” Gen. John Nicholson said via a teleconference from Kabul.

One of the strikes took place after US military intelligence monitored Taliban commanders in the wake of a major attack on Farah City. The militant leaders planned to meet after being pushed back.

The retreating rebel leaders were observed attending a meeting of other leaders in Musa Qala in Helmand Province, an area under the Taliban's control.

Nicholson said the highest ranking insurgent killed in the strike was the deputy shadow governor for Helmand. "It was a group of commanders meeting to discuss the operation in Farah that many of them had just participated in."

Nicholson said the US Marines tracked 50 of them to a meeting in Musa Qala and struck them with HIMARS rockets, killing dozens of the enemy leaders.

Several Taliban district governors, intelligence heads and leaders from Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Farah, Uruzgan and Helmand provinces were among the dead, the US military said in a statement.

The strikes were conducted over a 10-day period starting from May 17 and hitting targets in Helmand. The meeting in Musa Qala had been convened to discuss the Taliban attack on Farah.

Nicholson said the US military was focusing on Helmand because it had been serving as the financial engine of the Taliban.

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