NATO's Spring Offensive Bears Fruit

While most of the media has repeated the mantra that the Taliban will embark upon their annual spring offensive, it is NATO that has not only taken the offensive, but has eliminated quite a few of the Taliban's top leaders. On the heels of eliminating Dadullah, they've taken out two other major figures along with dozens of Taliban thugs:

NATO air forces bombarded some Taliban hideouts in Jalai district, which is about 40 km west of the provincial capital Kandahar city, on Monday night after receiving a credible tip-off, Alizai said.

The killed commanders were Mullah Abdul Hanan, Mullah Zekria and Mullah Zarif, Alizai said, adding he did not know how many militants were injured.

A searching operation for Taliban rebels in the area is going on, he added.

NATO must have been developing sources for this information for some time now as airstrikes and operations have yielded good results in just the past two weeks alone. Has Pakistan been providing more intel than they have in a while? It is a possibility that needs to be considered as many Taliban have been able to seek refuge inside Pakistan alongside al Qaeda elements.

HT: AJ Strata.

There are also reports that Dadullah was killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan after leaving Pakistan:

An official with Afghanistan's intelligence service, meanwhile, said three other Taliban commanders were killed alongside the militants' top field commander, Mullah Dadullah, in an operation in Helmand province over the weekend. One of them was Dadullah's brother, identified as Mullah Shah Mansoor, the official said.

The three other commanders killed were among five Taliban released from Afghan prisons in March in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

NATO has said Dadullah was killed after he moved into Afghanistan from his "sanctuary" _ a reference to Pakistan.

The Taliban offensive has not been kind to the Taliban - nothing but dead and captured leaders and they should be looking over their shoulders awaiting airstrikes.