Hunt & Kill

SAS 'assassinate' Taliban leader

Mark Dodd

AUSTRALIAN special forces have taken part in a targeted assassination of a senior Taliban leader, an operation army commanders claim will disrupt the insurgents' campaign in southern Oruzgan.

Mullah Noorullah was killed in a combined operation involving coalition troops and Australian special forces, Defence said yesterday.

It did not say when Noorullah was killed but did say the incident occurred in Deh Rafshan district in southern Oruzgan, where the Australian Special Operations Task Group is based.

The SOTG tag is commonly used by defence as a synonym to describe elite Special Air Service operatives authorised to hunt and kill Taliban leaders in an Afghan variation on the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program.

The statement was vague about Noorullah's position within the Taliban hierarchy, but it claimed he had been involved in an April 12 attack on Australian reconstruction and mentoring soldiers, in which four insurgents were killed.

It was alleged the insurgent leader was implicated in other unspecified roadside bomb and rocket attacks against coalition forces.

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25440872-31477,00.html