US-led forces say they have killed a close associate of Osama bin Laden in an air strike in southern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed on December 19 while travelling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the US military said on Saturday.
 
Osmani was the Taliban's chief military commander in southern Afghanistan and played a "central role in facilitating terrorist operations", the military said.

A Taliban spokeman told Al Jazeera that Osmani was still alive and well and US forces had killed a local group commander.
 
Separately, Mullah Hayat Khan, a Taliban commander, told Reuters: "We strongly deny this. He is not present in the area where American forces are claiming to have killed him.
   
"The American and Nato forces from time to time make such false claims. It's just propaganda against the Taliban."

Photo Caption

The map of Afghanistan