The killing of a high-ranking Taliban field commander won't deter jihad, leader Mullah Omar said Monday.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the Taliban, told The Associated Press that Omar and other top Taliban leaders offered condolences to Mullah Dadullah's family, which came as the first confirmation of Dadullah's death from the Taliban.
Ahmadi read a statement attributed to Omar insisting that Dadullah's death "won't create problems for the Taliban's jihad" and that militants will continue attacks against "occupying countries."
"Mullah Dadullah was the commander of all the fighting groups. Now all of the mujahedeen will carry on his same type of jihad. They will carry out attacks just as Mullah Dadullah did in his life," Ahmadi said in a statement via telephone from an undisclosed location.
Dadullah, a one-legged militant, was fatally shot by U.S.-led coalition forces in the southern province of Helmand over the weekend.
According to one Taliban faction on Sunday night, Omar had chosen Dadullah's younger brother as his successor.
However, Ahmadi said Omar and his council of top Taliban leaders will need more time to replace the commander.
"Today, when we were talking to many senior Taliban sources, they tell us that because there are a number of mid-level commanders -- perhaps upwards of 100 -- who now want the job, they now have to open it up and potentially do so some job interviews to see who might be best for Dadullah's position," CTV's Steve Chao said on Monday.
Observers have suggested it will be difficult to fill Dadullah's boots, Chao told Â鶹´«Ã½net from Afghanistan.
"His penchant for violence will be something very hard to replace and many suggest that any mid-level commander that takes his role, won't have the same experience or expertise in terms of strategy for the Taliban," Chao said.
The death of the brutal leader has been called one of the most significant Taliban losses since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
"There is no question that this has dealt a heavy blow to the Taliban," Chao said.
Dadullah was known for his love of beheading captives and was said to have orchestrated the kidnapping of foreign and local journalists, as well as foreign aid workers.
"He was very good at propaganda and he would sell DVDs at the local bazaar of himself beheading certain people that he caught," Chao said.
"He was so brutal that at one point, Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, had to ban him from working for the Taliban because he had massacred so many people."
Dadullah was known as the main person behind orchestrating the attacks on NATO forces in the South and served the Taliban for many years while they were in power.
He was the second top-tier Taliban field commander to die in six months, after a U.S. airstrike killed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani in southern Afghanistan in December.
With files from the Associated Press
