Brits send Taliban chief some Hellfire revenge

Daily Mail on Sunday:

The fanatical Taliban mastermind behind recent attacks in which six British soldiers died in Afghanistan has been killed in a missile attack by an Army Apache helicopter.

In what military chiefs described as a 'deliberate and surgical strike', the 35-year-old rebel leader - known as Sadiqullah - died alongside nine fellow Taliban fighters after the Apache fired two laser-guided Hellfire missiles at their red pick-up truck and destroyed it.

The rebel leader had been tracked down after weeks of secret intelligence work.

His death would have been instantaneous, as the warheads of the 5ft-long missiles, which travel at 950mph, are loaded with high-explosives designed to destroy even the heaviest tank armour.

The British military spokesman in Afghanistan, Lt Col Robin Matthews, said last night: 'This was a deliberate and surgical strike against a man who facilitated a number of fatal attacks on British, Nato and Afghan forces and civilians.

'It was conducted with meticulous precision and strikes a blow at the heart of the Taliban's leadership in southern Afghanistan.'

The secret operation was carried out on Thursday by two Army Air Corps pilots who were ordered to fly to a dusty road ten miles northwest of the town of Kajaki, where intelligence reports had confirmed that Sadiqullah was a passenger in the pick-up truck.

It is believed that his whereabouts were leaked to British forces - quite possibly by Afghans who want the violence destroying their country to end.

...

There is an interesting graphic which accompanies the story. The dead Taliban look like dead cockroaches beside the vehicle.

The description of the attack sounds more like the US operations in Iraq where the enemy is located and the Apaches are there to take them out. Predators are generally saved for Pakistan these days in the attack mode anyway. This particular Taliban leader is said to have been responsible for the road side bomb that killed the first British woman to die in Afghanistan. They were keen to get some revenge.

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