Change of tactics. NATO launches strike near Afghan town

NATO-led troops in Kabul, Afghanistan reportedly killed a senior Taliban leader with a precision air strike near a southern Afghan town overrun by militants on Saturday 3rd Feb 2007. He was killed as a result of an air strike near Musa Qala riding in his car. Musa Qala on Thursday was overrun by an estimated 300 Taliban fighters who disarmed local police, ransacked the district center and hoisted their trademark white flag and put the town's elders in prison. The town had been subject to a peace deal brokered last October between village elders and the Helmand provincial government that prevented NATO, Afghan and Taliban fighters from coming within 3 miles of the town center. The Taliban leader was killed within that 3-mile zone with the approval of the Afghan government. Apparently there were no NATO or Afghan forces were on the ground in Musa Qala.The name the person killed in the strike was not released immedietley, but Mohammad Wali, a Musa Qala resident, said the air strike killed a Taliban leader named Mullah Abdul Gafoor and some of his associates while they were riding in a truck through a small village just outside Musa Qala.
Another resident, Lal Mohammad, told the Associated Press on Saturday that the fighters in Musa Qala were being led by Gafoor, the hard line militia's corps commander in western Afghanistan during the Taliban regime.
Musa Qala saw intense battles between Taliban fighters and British troops last summer and fall. The fighting caused widespread damage to the town of around 10,000 inhabitants, most of whom were forced to leave.British forces withdrew from Musa Qala in October after the truce, which turned over security to local leaders and prevented NATO forces from entering the town.
Gen. David Richards, who was replaced Sunday as NATO's commander, told the AP on Saturday that "very surgical and deliberate" force would be used to evict the fighters from Musa Qala, where he said the alliance's strategy of avoiding military action has driven a wedge between residents and Taliban insurgents.