In Afghanistan, the U.S. military is claiming to have killed the Taliban’s military leader in southern Afghanistan — Akhtar Mohammad Osmani.

U.S. military spokesperson Colonel Thomas Collins: “Mullah Osmani is the highest-ranking Taliban leader that we’ve ever killed. He was the chief of the Taliban military operation, so his death is very significant and will hurt the Taliban’s operations. They will no doubt reconstitute his position. They’ll put somebody else in that role who’ll take a while to get up to speed. But Osmani was an associate of Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Hekmatyar. He had built up relationship with key figures in their terrorist organizations, so replacing him will be very difficult.”

A Taliban representative denied the U.S. account and said Osmani is still alive. In one of his last known recorded interviews, Osmani criticized the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Akhtar Mohammad Osmani: “We are not terrorists. America used it as an excuse to attack our country, Afghanistan. But even if their excuse is considered correct for a second, why did they then attack Iraq. The U.S.A. said they have WMDs (weapons of mass destruction). But did they find the WMDs? No, they did not. And they martyred thousands of civilians. But Bush has no answers to all of this bloodshed, and he is now coming up with lame excuses, accusing Saddam of being a cruel dictator. But I say Bush himself is very brutal. He is responsible for the killing of thousands of people.”