Mullah Abdul Ghafour is a Taliban commander that ISAF forces claim was killed by an airstrike on February 4, 2007.
[3] It reported: A unit of several hundred Taliban soldiers occupied Musa Qala on February 2, 2007.
[4] Eurasianet reports: "The attack laid waste to an agreement there, brokered last fall by Richards and local tribal elders, under which NATO troops agreed to withdraw from the town in return for a commitment by local Afghan leaders to oppose the Taliban."
British General David J. Richards, an expert at negotiation, is the outgoing NATO commander.
Eurasianet reports that the new NATO commander, American General Dan McNeill, opposes the kind of local agreements that Richards favored, and speculated that the aerial bombardment that was reported to have killed Mullah Abdul Ghafour was a sign of McNeill's more aggressive, less conciliatory approach.