A Taliban key commander Mullah Nasir is among five militants who have been killed in the troubled Helmand province of Afghanistan, a senior army commander in the southern region Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai said Sunday.

"The security forces have killed Taliban's notorious commander Mullah Nasir with four of his armed men," Ahmadzai told Xinhua.

Describing the physical elimination of Mullah Nasir as a major blow to the Taliban insurgents, the army official said the Taliban militants would lose their morale to fight in the poppy-growing Helmand and would ultimately lose the war in the province.

Taliban militants haven't commented on the news.

source: Xinhua