A key ally of Osama bin Laden has been killed in northern Afghanistan, an anti-Taliban general says.
Alliance General Daoud Khan claims the Islamic militant leader from Uzbekistan was fatally injured in Mazar-e-Sharif.
He died days later as a result of his wounds, General Khan claims. There was no independent verification of his claim.
Rebel leader Juma Namangani - whose real name was Jumaboi Khojiev - was known as Namangani for his hometown of Namangan in Uzbekistan.
The 32-year-old is believed to have a home in Kabul, where there have been reports that bin Laden had named Namangani as his deputy head of military operations.
Namangani was one of two leaders of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which seeks to install an Islamic fundamentalist regime in the Central Asian country just across Afghanistan's northern border.
The secular, authoritarian government of Uzbekistan is a US ally in its war against terrorism, and US troops are based in Uzbekistan. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan opposes any ties to the US.
The group was placed on the American State Department's list of terrorist organisations last year after the kidnapping of four American mountain climbers in Kyrgystan.
The Uzbek government also alleges Namangani's group was behind a series of 1999 bombings in the capital, Tashkent, targeting President Islam Karimov.
AP