Infamous Taliban leader assumes room temperature:

A senior Taliban commander who became a hero to Islamic militants for his role in shooting down a U.S. helicopter in 2005, killing all 16 special forces troops aboard, has been killed by Pakistani security forces, officials and Taliban militants tell CBS News.

Mullah Ismail, a notorious Taliban commander from the Afghan province of Kunar, was killed in a shootout with Pakistani police as he traveled with a kidnapped trader, a local police officer said Wednesday. He was apparently on his way into the lawless Northwest Frontier Province along the Afghan border.

If you read Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor or are familiar with Operation Red Wing, you'd recognize Ismail as the incompetent Taliban commander who lost roughly half his force of 150 men to four US Navy SEALs (three of whom died fighting off their attackers). He was later lionized by his fellow bugs for a lucky RPG shot that took down a helicopter full of special forces troops on their way to assist Luttrell's squad. True to form, the press always plays up the Chinook shoot-down and the tragic loss of 16 operators instead of the remarkable heroism and admirable killing power of the SEALs.

Lone Survivor was a New York Times bestseller, and will be made into a feature film next year.

HT: Blackfive