US charges alleged ex-Taliban commander with killing US troops | Al Jazeera

United States prosecutors have charged an alleged former Taliban commander with terrorism-related offences related to the killing of American troops in Afghanistan in 2008.

The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said on Thursday that Haji Najibullah was charged in a 13-count indictment that was unsealed in federal court.

Najibullah, 45, was already in US custody after being charged for the 2008 kidnapping of an American journalist and two Afghan civilians.

On Thursday, prosecutors said they had filed a superseding indictment that added counts of murder to his charge sheet.

They said Najibullah served at the time as a Taliban commander in Afghanistan’s Wardak province, which borders the capital Kabul.

He was charged in connection with a June 2008 attack by Taliban fighters under his command on a US military convoy with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and other explosives, prosecutors said.