Aussie troops kill senior Taliban leader

Australian troops who killed a senior Taliban commander in Afghanistan had
contributed to the international fight against terrorism, Foreign Minister Stephen
Smith says.
Australian special forces troops killed Mullah Noorullah in an operation expected to
disrupt insurgent activity for some months, the defence department said on
Wednesday.
Described as a senior insurgent commander, Noorullah was involved in the use of
improvised explosive devices and rocket attacks against coalition forces.
He was also understood to have been involved in the major battle with Afghan and
Australian forces on April 12 in which up to four other insurgents were also killed
by Australian soldiers.
Mr Smith said the international community needed to continue to "stare down
international terrorism threats in Afghanistan".
"We will often get these incidences and I'll leave the detail on that appropriately
to the defence forces," Mr Smith told reporters in Perth.
"But we continue to strongly believe it is in our nation's interest to make our
contribution in Afghanistan."
Defence said in a statement that Noorullah and another insurgent were killed in a
targeted operation after being tracked moving into a tunnel system in the Oruzgan
area, where Australian forces are based.
The latest operation was expected to disrupt the effectiveness of insurgent activity
in the Deh Rafshan region for a number of months to come, the defence statement
said.
Chief of joint operations, Lieutenant-General Mark Evans, said the
counter-insurgency strategy being employed by the NATO-led coalition was having a
degrading effect on Taliban leadership and their ability to conduct coherent
operations.
"Coalition forces are disrupting the insurgents' ability to command and control
operations," he said.
The result of this constant targeting was that the Taliban were not readily able to
coordinate attacks on coalition forces until replacement leaders were recruited and
they could rebuild their knowledge and skills.