In the Afghan province of Hilmen, one of the leaders of the Taliban was killed

NATO troops destroyed one of the major field commanders of Taliban, the command of the North Atlantic Alliance reported on Sunday. Mullah Assad, who was considered one of the high -ranking leaders of the Taliban militants in the South Afghan Province of Hilmen, was killed as a result of a special operation conducted on November 19, 2008.

Other details of the operation, as well as the reasons for the delay in the message about the death of the field commander, did not lead the NATO command, the Associated Press reports.

At the same time, the alliance command announced the intention to activate the fight against militants. The troops were ordered to take actions to neutralize the militants of the Taliban throughout the winter period.

While NATO soldiers are fighting with militants, the authorities of Afghanistan are trying to agree with the Taliban, hoping to stop violence in the country with diplomatic methods. In September 2008, the members of the Taliban movement through the mediation of Saudi Arabia held the first meeting with representatives of the Pakistan and Afghanistan authorities in several years, but it did not bring visible results.

Nevertheless, the Afghan authorities do not intend to abandon this idea: in November, the country's president Hamid Karzai even stated that he was ready to provide guarantees for security for the leader of the Taliban radical movement Mulle Omar if he agreed to start peace negotiations with Kabul. At the same time, Karzai said that he was ready to take this step at the cost of his own political situation.

Earlier, representatives of Taliban stated that the main condition for the start of the negotiation process is the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan since 2001.