Taliban leader killed in security operation

HERAT, Afghanistan - An Afghan security force killed a senior Taliban leader along with four other insurgents in the country's western province of Herat overnight, police said Monday morning.

"A leading Taliban leader named Mullah Barjan was killed along four other insurgents after they engaged with an Afghan Special Operation force in Ghoryan district at midnight,"provincial police spokesman Abdul Rauof Ahmadi told Xinhua.

Barjan served as head of the Taliban's military council in western provinces, he said, adding that two other Taliban local leaders were among the killed.

The security forces, based on a tip-off, tried to capture the leader before the armed clash. They were travelling in two vehicles, Ahmadi noted.

The security forces also recovered weapons and a handful of narcotics following the raid.

The killed leader controlled insurgents operating in the Herat and other western provinces and facilitated the movement of weapons to insurgents in the region, the source noted.

The Taliban-led violence continues in Afghanistan. Security forces have pressed on to clear the militants in restive provinces.

The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, has yet to make comments.

Afghan security forces took the full operational lead from NATO-led troops in June last year.

The war-torn country is due to take over the responsibility for its own security from foreign troops by the end of 2014.

More than 41,000-strong NATO-led foreign troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are currently being deployed in Afghanistan.