Top Taliban Leader Killed in Afghanistan

May 14, 2007 -- TALIBAN LEADER KILLED

Key Taliban Leader Is Killed in Afghanistan in Joint Operation

The man who probably was the Taliban's foremost operational commander, Mullah Dadullah, was killed in a joint operation by Afghan security forces, American forces and NATO troops in Helmand Province, Governor Asadullah Khaled of the neighboring Kandahar Province said Sunday. (NY Times)

Taliban Leader: Death Won't Slow Militant Jihad

Taliban leader Mullah Omar said the killing of its top field commanders will not "create problems" for the hard-line militia and that attacks of foreign troops will continue, a spokesman said Monday. (AP)

MISSING U.S. SOLDIERS

Al-Qaida Claims to Have 3 Missing Troops

An al-Qaida front group announced it had captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, as thousands of U.S. troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades. (AP)

AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN

1 Pakistani, 1 U.S. Soldier Killed In Militant Shooting Near Afghan Border

Militants opened fire Monday on a convoy carrying U.S. and Pakistani military officials near the Afghan border, killing one American and one Pakistani soldier, the Pakistani army spokesman said. (AP)

Five Afghan Soldiers Die in Border Clash

Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire at their rugged border on Sunday in their most serious skirmish in years. Pakistan said it killed five Afghan soldiers, but Afghanistan said just two Afghan civilians died. (Dawn)

PAKISTAN

Region Strikes over Pakistan Violence

Storefronts were shuttered and the streets of Pakistan's commercial hub emptied of cars on Monday as residents angry over a weekend of deadly political violence honored a general strike called amid growing discontent over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's ouster of the chief justice. (AP)

Rangers Get Orders To Shoot Rioters in Karachi

The government ordered Rangers to shoot rioters on sight and imposed Section 144 as eight people were killed and nine, including three policemen, injured in a second day of violence here on Sunday. (Daily Times)

Karachi Violence Was Planned By Govt: Lawyers

By Bakhtawar Mian

Lawyers on the panel defending Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry have alleged that Saturday's incidents in Karachi were part of a conspiracy hatched by the government to foil the lawyers' movement for independence of the judiciary. (Dawn)

Senior Official of Pakistani Supreme Court Is Killed

A senior official of the Pakistani Supreme Court was shot to death by unidentified gunman early Monday, following political clashes in Karachi on Sunday that claimed 39 lives. (International Herald Tribune)

AFGHANISTAN

Police Die In Afghan Bomb Blast

Eight police officers have been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, Afghan police have said. (BBC)

GERMANY

U.S. Air Marshals Flooding German, British Flights

As many as five or six U.S. air marshals are now assigned to each U.S.-bound flight from airports in Frankfurt, London and Manchester, England, because of fears terrorists might attempt a coordinated series of mid-air explosions, law enforcement officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. (ABC News)

Authorities in Germany Detained 2 With al Qaeda Ties

Authorities detained two suspects believed to be part of a cell of the Islamic Jihad Union, an al Qaeda-affiliated Uzbek group, intelligence sources have told ABC News. (ABC News)

IRAQ NEWS

50 Reported Dead As Insurgents Target Iraqi Kurds Again

A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people in Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish north on Sunday, as thousands of American troops searched for three US soldiers missing after an ambush in which Al-Qaeda said it seized "crusader" forces. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed 12 people in a popular market in a mostly Shiite area. (Daily Star)

U.S.

Ex-CIA Official Pushed Millions in Secret Deals to Pal, Prosecutors Say

A former top CIA official steered an aviation contracting opportunity worth $132 million to a longtime friend, despite his friend's lack of experience in the field, according to federal prosecutors. (ABC News)

Staffers Call for Special Probe of Watchdog

A group of anonymous employees are asking President Bush to fire their boss, the top watchdog at the Commerce Department, and opt for a special counsel to investigate him. (ABC News)

RUSSIA

Russia Cafe Blast Leaves 10 Dead

Ten people have been killed in an explosion at a cafe in the Russian city of Orsk, emergency officials say. (BBC)

U.S. / CANADA

Suspect on U.S. Most-Wanted List Arrested In Montreal

On the run for six years, 61-year-old Richard Steve Goldberg was on the same FBI most-wanted list as Osama bin Laden. The Brooklyn-born former aerospace engineer fled after being charged with luring girls under 10 to his Los Angeles-area home, sexually assaulting them and storing images of the assaults on his computer in 2001. (Globe and Mail)

IRAN

Iran Admits Detaining US Academic

Iran's foreign ministry has confirmed that the government has detained a leading Iranian-American academic. (BBC)

U.K.

21/7 Accused In Muslim Bias Claim

One of the alleged 21 July bombers said he was only accused of being a suicide bomber because he was Muslim, a court has heard. (BBC)

ALGERIA/U.K.

Terror Suspect Cannot Be Deported

An Algerian terror suspect cannot be deported after a judge ruled he is not a threat to national security. (BBC)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Qaddafi Presents Bizarre New Demands for Settling Terrorism Cases

By Jeff Stein

Muammar el-Qaddafi has always seemed to rotate on his own axis of evil.Those flowing robes, salon-style curls, bellboy's hat and penchant for spending months in a desert tent made him seem goofy in comparison to Saddam Hussein, the Iranian ayatollahs and even North Korea's Kim Il-Sung. (Congressional Quarterly)

The Danger in Drug Kickbacks

The explosion in the use of three anti-anemia drugs to treat cancer and kidney patients illustrates much that is wrong in the American pharmaceutical marketplace. Thanks to big payoffs to doctors, and reckless promotional ads permitted by lax regulators, the drugs have reached blockbuster status. Now we learn that the dosage levels routinely injected or given intravenously in doctors' offices and dialysis centers may be harmful to patients. (NY Times)

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's Interview With Al-Hayat

Discussions were purely focused on Iraq and seeking Syrian cooperation to help a neighbor in difficulty and we have said repeatedly that we are willing to help with anyone. Chapter seven makes it mandatory to set up the international tribunal. (al-Hayat)

In Somalia, Shock and Awe, Followed by Stalemate

By David Ignatius

"Get it done quickly and get out." That, says a senior US diplomat in Addis Ababa, was the goal of the little-noticed war that Ethiopia has been fighting, with American support, against Islamic extremists in Somalia. But this in-and-out strategy encounters the same real-world obstacles that America is facing in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Daily Star)

Dadullah's Death Hits Taliban

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

Now that Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah is dead, everybody, including Pakistani militants, al-Qaeda, Washington, Kabul and Islamabad, is weighing how this will affect the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. (Asia Times)

The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.