Al-Qaeda’s top leader killed in US-Afghan joint op

Kabul : At least 80 militants, including terror outfit Al-Qaeda’s top leader, have been killed in a joint operation by the Afghan and United States forces in Afghanistan.

The senior Al-Qaeda leader, gunned down during the joint operation, has been identified as Omar Khetab, who was also famous as Omar Mansoor, reported Khaama Press, citing Afghan’s Intelligence agency National Directorate of Security (NDS), as saying.

The operations were conducted in Ghazni, Zabul, and Paktia provinces.

The latest development comes in the backdrop of United States Department of Defense underscoring in a statement, issued in March, the death of a renowned Al-Qaida leader Qari Yasin, who was also responsible for the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.

Yasin was killed in a U.S. counter-terrorism airstrike, according to the statement.

The ambush had left six Pakistani policemen and two civilians dead. Six members of the team had been injured as well.

Earlier in October, Taliban’s military commission chief identified as Qari Noor Aqa, along with seven insurgents, had been killed in clashes with the Afghan security and special operations forces in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan. (ANI)