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1st LD Writethru: U.S. airstrike kills Afghan Taliban shadow governor near Kunduz city

Xinhua, September 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Taliban shadow governor for Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province has been killed along with 16 other militants following a U.S. airstrike, said the National Directorate for Security, the country intelligence agency, on Wednesday.

"Taliban shadow governor Mawlawi Salam, along with his deputy and 15 other Taliban got killed in an airstike in Kunduz," the NDS said on its twitter account.

The statement said the air attack was conducted with close coordination with the NDS; however, it did not disclose the exact time of the raid.

The attack came two days after Taliban took full control of the provincial capital Kunduz city, some 250 km north of Kabul.

On Tuesday, thousands of Afghan forces prepared to retake the city while the U.S. forces conducted several airstrikes on Taliban positions on the outskirts of the strategically important city.

The Taliban have intensified attacks over the past couple of months as the Afghan security forces assumed the full security responsibilities from NATO-led troops since Jan. 1. Endi