Taliban number two in Kandahar dead: NATO

An Afghan-international force used a precision air strike to kill Taliban commander Haji Amir,one of the two most senior Taliban leaders in Kandahar province, an ISAF statement said.

Several of his fighters were also killed in the raid,it said. Kandahar province is the hub of the Talibans insurgency,and was the informal capital of their brutal 1996-2001 regime.

An operation against the insurgents is building,with new deployments of US and NATO troops heading to Kandahar as Western commanders hope to neutralise the Taliban by the end of the year.

The statement said Amir had escaped from prison in Kandahar in 2008. He had been tracked for several days before he was targeted in a mud hut in Zangabad village,it said. NATO said Amir operated in Kandahars Dand,Zhari and Panjwayi districts,all badly hit by the Taliban insurgency.