Taliban commander killed, U.S. says

KABUL – Forces with the U.S.-backed coalition killed a regional Taliban commander and eight others in an airstrike in western Afghanistan, the U.S. said today.

The Sunday night attack destroyed the building housing Ghulam Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab, near the Turkmenistan border, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Dastagir oversaw all of western Badghis province for the Taliban. He was responsible for a surge in violence in the province in recent months, including a November attack on an Afghan army convoy that killed 13 soldiers, the statement said.

He had been imprisoned in Kabul until about three months ago, when he was released.