Dadullah Maulavi or Mullah Dadullah or Dadullah Akhund ( ) ( c . 1966 – 12 May 2007 ) was the Taliban ' s senior military commander until he was killed by British and American special forces in Afghanistan in 2007 . He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Kakar tribe of Kalai - Kakaran village in Uruzgan province of Afghanistan . He also had a home in Alajilga , a border village in Kandahar province . According to the United Nations ' list of entities belonging to or associated with the Al - Qaida organization he had been the Taliban ' s Minister of Construction . Early life . Dadullah lost a leg when fighting with the Mujahideen against Soviet occupation in the 1980s . He was a member of the Taliban ' s 10 - man leadership council before the US - led invasion in 2001 . He was reportedly also a close aide to Mullah Omar . In the period of 1999 - 2000 , he led the suppression of a revolt by Hazaras in Bamyan province . When the Taliban regime fell in December 2001 , Dadullah escaped capture by Northern Alliance forces in Kunduz province . Fight post 2001 . Rumors that Dadullah may be headed to recapture the city with as many as 8 , 000 Taliban fighters , following the November 2001 Battle of Mazar - i - Sharif , a thousand American ground forces were airlifted into the city . He allegedly participated ( by giving orders via cell phone ) in the murder of Ricardo Munguia on March 27 , 2003 . In 2005 he was sentenced " in absentia " to life in prison , along with three others , by Pakistan for the attempted murder of a member of Pakistan ' s parliament , Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani of the Jamiat Ulema - i - Islam party . Sherani , an opponent of the Taliban , survived an IED attack in his home constituency of Balochistan in November , 2004 . A " Western intelligence source " claimed Dadullah may have been operating out of Quetta , Pakistan . Others , including the Pakistani government , claimed he was operating near Kandahar , Afghanistan . In 2006 , he claimed to have 12 , 000 men and control 20 districts in the former Taliban heartland in the southern provinces of Kandahar , Helmand , Zabul and Orūzgān . Dadullah had reportedly been a central figure in the recruitment of Pakistani nationals to the Taliban and was also one of the main Taliban spokesmen , frequently meeting with Al - Jazeera television reporters . In the summer of 2006 , he was reportedly sent by Mullah Omar to South Waziristan to convince local Pashtun insurgents to agree to a truce with Pakistan . In October 2006 it was rumored that the Afghan government was considering giving control of its defense ministry over to Dadullah as part of a reconciliation plan with the Taliban to stop the ongoing insurgency . Mullah Dadullah was linked to massacres of Shi ' a , the scorched earth policy of Shi ' a villages in 2001 ( which he boasted about once on the radio ) , and the summary execution of men suspected of throwing hand grenades into his compound in 2001 ( they were hanged at one of the main roundabouts ) . According to an interview he gave to the BBC , he had hundreds of suicide bombers waiting for his orders to launch an offensive against NATO troops . Dadullah oversaw Taliban negotiations for the hostage - taking of Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his two Afghan assistants in March 2007 . Mastrogiacomo ' s driver was later beheaded . Mastrogiacomo was reportedly exchanged for five senior Taliban leaders , including Ustad Yasir , Abdul Latif Hakimi , Mansoor Ahmad , a brother of Dadullah , and two commanders identified as Hamdullah and Abdul Ghaffar . The Taliban threatened to kill the interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi , one of the two Afghan assistants , on March 29 , 2007 unless the Kabul government freed two Taliban prisoners . Ajmal was later beheaded after the Afghan government refused to free anymore Taliban prisoners . According to Asadullah Khalid , the governor of Kandahar Province , " Mullah Dadullah was the backbone of the Taliban . He was a brutal and cruel commander who killed and beheaded Afghan civilians . " Death . Afghan officials reported on May 13 , 2007 that Mullah Dadullah was killed the previous evening in a raid by U . S , Afghan and NATO forces , known to have included the Special Boat Service ( SBS ) , a British special forces unit , in Helmand Province , after he left his " sanctuary " for a meeting with fellow commanders , in southern Afghanistan . Assadullah Khalid , the governor of Kandahar province , put the body of Dadullah on display at his official residence . The body appeared to have three bullet wounds , two in the torso and one in the back of the head . The Taliban named Mullah Bakht , Dadullah ' s younger brother , as his replacement . On June 7 , 2007 , the Taliban said that Dadullah ' s body had been returned to them , in exchange for four Afghan health ministry workers who had been held hostage , and had been buried by his family in Kandahar . The Taliban said that a fifth hostage had been beheaded because Dadullah ' s body was not returned quickly enough .