Kabul  - US-led coalition forces killed a Taliban commander believed to be connected with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and 16 of his fighters in an airstrike in western Afghanistan, the US military said Wednesday.

Mullah Mustafa along with his 16 fighters were killed in a coalition "precision airstrike" in Shahrak district of the western province of Ghor on Tuesday, the US military said in a statement.

Mustafa had recently acquired six remotely controlled roadside bombs, and distributed them to subordinates for use against the coalition forces, it said.

"The commander of approximately 100 fighters in western Afghanistan, Mustafa, had recently met with senior Taliban leaders, and reportedly had connections to Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Quds Force," the statement said.

The targeted commander was responsible for attacks on the highway in the provinces of Herat and Ghor, close to the Afghan-Iranian border, the statement said, but did not elaborate on the extend of Mustafa's connections to Iranian forces, nor did it say if he received any support from the neighbouring Islamic country.

The US and other Western officials have said in the past that Taliban insurgents were receiving weapons and other support from some elements inside Iran's armed forces, but except for some pictures of Iranian made anti-vehicle-mines, they did not provide other evidence to the media.

The US commanders in Iraq also have accused Quds Force, which is a unit inside Iran's Revolutionary Guards, of fomenting the sectarian conflict in Iraq.

The Shiite Iranian government was helping anti-Taliban Afghan resistance groups when the Sunni Taliban movement ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

But military analysts believe that following the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Iran has been using its erstwhile foes, the resurgent Taliban fighters, to create problems for the US forces in Afghanistan.(dpa)