8 Mar 2010

Taliban commander believed killed by air strike

12:21 pm on 8 March 2010

A senior Taliban commander is thought to have been killed by an air strike in northwest Pakistan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in Islamabad he could not confirm the death of Maulana Faqir Mohammed, but expected that he had been killed.

He said he assumed the Taliban commander was dead after helicopters hit a building in Mohmand region, killing at least 16 fighters there.

The BBC reports a number of Taliban leaders have been arrested or killed in recent weeks.

Faqir Mohammed was the Pakistani Taliban commander in the Bajaur tribal area

Meanwhile, Pakistani security agents have arrested an American al Qaeda spokesperson wanted in the United States on a treason charge.

Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam and the first American to be charged with treason since World War II, has appeared in al Qaeda videos posted on the internet threatening the United States with violence.