U.S.: Top bin Laden associate killed

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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban military commander described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in an airstrike this week close to the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said Saturday.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed Tuesday by a U.S. airstrike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said.

"We have various sources saying he was in fact killed in the attack," coalition spokesman Col. Tom Collins told CNN in an exclusive interview Saturday.

The death of Osmani, a top general and one of the most wanted Taliban members, comes more than four years after he was mistakenly released in 2002 by the military due to what the U.S. Military described then as "faulty information."

"We've been tracking him for some time and following his location," Collins said.

Osmani was accidentally released during the summer of 2002 due to faulty intelligence after military forces arrested him in Kandahar. Once released he quickly fled to Pakistan.

"That was a mistake and Osmani did escape back into the populace," Collins said. "But he'll never do that again because he's dead now."

Osmani was in the top ring of the Taliban leadership and was also a close associate of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, al Qaeda Leader Osama bin Laden and Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyr.

He was the Taliban's chief of military operations in the Afghan provinces of Uruzgan, Nimroz, Kandahar, Farah, Herat and Helmand, Collins added.

"We had been tracking him for some time following his locations," Collins said.

"When we got the opportunity when he was away from any Afghan populace we chose that time to strike him."

Two other unidentified people the military said were his associates were also killed in the attack.

Osmani was also in charge of the Taliban's finances, Collins said.

Spokesmen with the Taliban later in the day denied reports that Osmani was killed, according to various news agencies.

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