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NATO says Mullah Omar ordered killing of Afghan tribal chief

Other News Materials 15 July 2010 13:51 (UTC +04:00)
An Afghan tribal chief executed by militants earlier this week was on a list of people the Taliban's supreme chief Mullah Omar wanted killed, NATO said Thursday.
NATO says Mullah Omar ordered killing of Afghan tribal chief

An Afghan tribal chief executed by militants earlier this week was on a list of people the Taliban's supreme chief Mullah Omar wanted killed, NATO said Thursday.

Mullah Saleh Mohammad, a member of tribal leaders' council in Khas Uruzgan district of the southern province of Uruzgan, was killed when Taliban militants stopped his car at a make-shift checkpoint on Tuesday, the military said in a statement.

"Mullah Omar sent to his followers a list of Afghans he wants killed," the NATO statement said, citing information provided by US Special Forces in the area. "Mohammad was number three on that list. That's why he was killed."

Mohammad was initially kidnapped by the militants on Monday, but was released when local elders interfered, it said, adding that the following day as he was travelling in a vehicle, "The insurgents stopped the van, pulled Mohammad out, and shot him on the spot, according to those at the scene."

Mullah Omar, who has a 10-million-dollar bounty on his head, is believed to hiding in Balochistan province of Pakistan according to US and Afghan officials after his government was toppled by the US-led forces in late 2001. Pakistan has steadfastly denied this claim.

Taliban militants have killed numerous Afghans, including government civilian workers, tribal elders and religious scholars for allegedly spying for the Western-backed Afghan government.

The militants killed a former agent with the country's intelligence service and his brother in the central province of Logar on Wednesday night, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Three more members of the man's family, including a child, a woman and an elderly man, were injured when the militants attacked their home in the Porak area of the province, it said.

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