KABUL, Afghanistan
By Zabihullah Tamanna
A close aide to the Taliban's fugitive leader Mullah Omar has been killed by security forces on Monday, according to an Afghan security official.
The aide was killed in an Afghan Special Forces operation, assisted by NATO, in the western province of Farrah, the spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service Abdul Haseed Sediqi told the Anadolu Agency.
“Abdul Rahman Nika, named as shadow governor of Taliban for western Herat province was killed along six of his followers including senior commanders Mullah Zaker and Mullah this morning. He was an important body of Taliban militants and member of Quetta Council. He was involved in many anti-government terrorist activities in western Afghanistan,” Sediqi said, referring to a Taliban decision group supposedly headed by Mullah Omar in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
Nika had coordinated kidnapping of three Indian engineers on Aug 13, who were later rescued by intelligence services south of the capital Kabul, he added. Nika was accused of involvement in most of the Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan.
He also said that the killing of Nika resulted in the foiling of a plot to attack a regional security conference, to be attended by representatives from 10 countries, on Friday.
Both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, who are otherwise seperate entities, swear allegiance to Mullah Omar as their supreme leader.
www.aa.com.tr/en
