QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces killed a top figure in the Taliban militia fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and captured four other militants Monday, a military official said.Mansoor Dadullah, brother of slain Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah, was among five militants caught after a shootout near a seminary in southwestern Baluchistan province around 10 a.m., a local intelligence official told The Associated Press. A senior military official said Dadullah died of his wounds while being flown to a hospital with the other four injured men.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists. Pakistani army and government spokesmen could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dadullah rose in the militia's ranks as an important commander in southern Afghanistan after his brother was killed during a military operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province in May. Mullah Dadullah was the highest-ranking Taliban commander killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. But in late December, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid announced that Dadullah had been dismissed from the movement for "disobeying orders" and conducting activities "against the Taliban's rules and regulations."
On Monday, Mujahid said Dadullah was still part of the Taliban movement, but that he was no longer an operational commander in southern Afghanistan. Mujahid said he had no comment on Dadullah's reported capture and death.
Dadullah told the AP in a phone interview in January that he remained a Taliban commander and had asked the militia's supreme leader Mullah Omar to dispel "rumors" of his dismissal. He also claimed that he had met with al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri a few months ago but had never met with Osama bin Laden. He said Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Helmand were fighting alongside each other and sharing tactics.
The operation was carried out in the Gwal Ismailzai village, 150 miles northeast of the Baluchistan capital, Quetta, by a joint force of police, anti-terrorism forces and army commandos.
Dadullah is the latest in a series of high-ranking Taliban militants to have been killed or captured either side of the border in the past year or so.