Brits were listening to Taliban leaders call when he was bombed

Sunday Times:

THE Taliban commander in charge of attacks on British and Nato forces in southern Afghanistan was reported yesterday to have been killed in a US airstrike after an RAF aircraft intercepted his satellite telephone.

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Osmani, an associate of Osama Bin Laden, is said to have been part of a triumvirate with Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban military commander, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. Osmani headed Taliban operations in six provinces.

Military souces said he had been killed by a strike on his vehicle as he and his aides left a village in the Zahre area. An RAF R1 monitoring aircraft is believed to have been tracking him. The aircraft was working with a US special operations team, including members of Delta Force, plus intelligence specialists from a unit known as Task Force Orange who tracked him on the ground.

The satellite telephone signal allowed the RAF aircraft to pinpoint Osmani’s location. As he headed out of the village in a 4x4, a US plane dropped a smart bomb onto the vehicle.

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If the Taliban are going to say he is still alive they should produce him for a news briefing. Right now he is giving about as many news briefings as a dead man which he probably is. It is interesting that the Taliban is still using satellite phones. They know that we have been listening to their calls since before the African embassy bombings. Osama quit using his after the US introduced evidence of his calls during the discovery phase of the trial.

Update: Osmani's remains have been identified by DNA testing now. It is just more evidence that the Taliban deliberately lied when they denied that he was dead.