A senior Taliban military leader was killed in southern Uruzgan province Saturday, Afghan top security official confirmed Sunday.

"Mullah Abdul Ghafar along with his two colleagues were killed in action in Uruzgan province," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told newsmen in Kabul.

Ghafar, released from US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba last year, according to the Minister who was a regional commander of the Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan.

He did not mention the area of battle but, according to Afghans, he was killed in the troubled Charchinot district.

Uruzgan and the neighboring restive provinces in the south and southeast Afghanistan has been the scene of increasing militancy for the last several months in which over 400 civilians, rebels, US and Afghan troops had lost their lives.

At least 10 pro-government individuals including 9 soldiers have been killed in Taliban-led militancy in south Afghanistan since late last week.