Taliban leader Dadullah buried in Afghanistan

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, May 14 (Reuters) Afghan authorities said today they had buried the body of Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah in the southern province of Kandahar, but his relatives could rebury it somewhere else if they wished to.

Dadullah's killing at the weekend by US-led forces was widely regarded as the biggest blow against the Taliban since they began an insurgency following the overthrow of their government in 2001.

Nicknamed Afghanistan's Al Zarqawi after the slain al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Dadullah was the main architect of suicide bombings, kidnapping of foreigners and Afghans, a series of beheadings and the rise of violence in the south.

''Even though he was a merciless person, we buried his body on the basis of Islamic teachings,'' Kandahar's Governor Assadullah Khalid told reporters today evening.

''His relatives and family members did not contact us for the body, but should they want to rebury him somewhere else, they can.

We have no objection,'' Khalid added.

Meantime, the Taliban were facing up to the problem of replacing a commander feared for his ruthlessness, and fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was consulting with the leadership council on who should take his place.

BIG BLOW FOR TALIBAN ''It is a very big loss for us because Dadullah was a very important commander and Taliban's war planner against coalition and Afghan forces,'' a senior Taliban commander, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.

Dadullah was killed in a clash as part of a widespread US-led operation in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, the main bastion for the militants and the key drug producing region of the country, the world's leading heroin producer.

Authorities made Dadullah's death public only after forensic tests confirmed his identity because past claims that he had been killed proved premature.

News of Dadullah's demise was not splashed on the front pages of state-owned and private papers, but many ordinary Afghans were delighted.

''Dadullah was a very bad man and he was a cruel man. He beheaded many Afghans,'' said a 30-year-old man from Spin Boldak, a town near the border with Pakistan in Kandahar province.

Reuters MP DB2334