© The Associated Press/Musadeq SadeqNato troops at the scene of a militant attack in Kabul earlier this month.
Sakhr al-Taifi, also known as Mushtaq and Nasim, led foreign insurgents and directed attacks against Nato and Afghan forces, the alliance said.
The air strike that killed Taifi and another al-Qaida militant took place on Sunday in the Watahpur district of Kunar. A later assessment of the area determined that no civilians had been harmed, Nato said.
The coalition declined to reveal the name of al-Qaida's top leader in Afghanistan "due to ongoing operations and security concerns".
Most of al-Qaida's senior leaders are believed to be based in Pakistan, where they fled after the US invasion. The terrorist organisation is believed to have only a nominal presence in Afghanistan.
Many al-Qaida commanders have died in US drone attacks in Pakistan's north-western tribal region. Osama bin Laden was killed by US commandos in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May 2010.
Bin Laden advised al-Qaida militants to leave Pakistan's North and South Waziristan tribal areas because of the threat of drone attacks, according to letters seized from the compound where he was killed and later released by the US.
Taifi is understood to have travelled often between Afghanistan and Pakistan, carrying out commands from al-Qaida leaders and ferrying in weapons and fighters.
Nato announced separately that a homemade bomb had killed one of its soldiers in the south of Afghanistan. It said the attack happened on Wednesday, but provided no further details.
The death raises to 173 the number of Nato troops killed in Afghanistan this year.
In northern Afghanistan, Taliban fighters attacked a police post in Badakshan province on Tuesday evening, killing eight policemen, the provincial governor's spokesman, Abdul Maruf Rasikh, said. The attack, in Warduj district, triggered heavy fighting for three hours in which six militants were also killed, he said.
Two would-be suicide bombers riding in a vehicle packed with explosives in eastern Nangarhar province were killed on Tuesday when it exploded prematurely, a local government official said. Three other people in the vehicle were severely wounded in the explosion, which occurred on the main highway between Jalalabad city and Torkham, a town on the Pakistani border, the official said.
Source: The Associated Press
And since you've never lied before, we'll just take your word for it. *sarcasm*