WASHINGTON: Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan, the Afghanistan government said Sunday. The US announced it had targeted the terror outfit’s chief but gave no official confirmation of his death.
Mansour — who took charge of the Taliban after Mullah Omar’s death became public in 2015 — posed a “continuing, imminent threat” to US personnel and Afghans, secretary of state John Kerry said. “If people want to stand in the way of peace, continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond and I think we responded appropriately.”
US department of defense press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement Saturday, “Today, the department of defense conducted an airstrike that targeted Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a remote area of the AfghanistanPakistan border region. We are still assessing the results of the strike and will provide more information as it becomes available.” But unidentified officials told US media they believed Mansour was killed, along with another Taliban figure, when his convoy was attacked by multiple drones. The strike was reportedly authorised by President Barack Obama. Confirming the death, Afghan chief executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted, “Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike in Quetta, Pakistan, at 04.30pm yesterday.” He said the terror chief ’s car was attacked in Dahl Bandin, referring to a district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Kerry said the leaders of both Pakistan and Afghanistan were notified of the airstrike. He said he’d spoken to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by phone.
Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed “this information was shared with the PM and the chief of army staff after the drone strike”. “While further investigations are being carried out, Pakistan wishes to once again state the drone attack was a violation of its sovereignty,” it said in a statement.
The foreign office said one Wali Muhammad, carrying a Pakistani passport and ID card, had entered Pakistan from the Taftan border on May 21. His passport bore a valid Iranian visa. He was travelling in a vehicle hired from a transport company in Taftan. This vehicle was found destroyed along the border with Afghanistan.
The driver, it said, has been identified as Muhammad Azam while the “identity of the second body is being verified”. There was no official statement from the Taliban.
The location of the attack would fuel further anger against Pakistan, often accused of harbouring terrorists. Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was found and killed by US special forces in a hideout in Abbottabad in 2011. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the 9/11 mastermind, was caught in Faisalabad in 2003. And Americans believe the entire Haqqani Network leadership is based in Pakistan. “Since the death of Mullah Omar and Mansour’s assumption of leadership, the Taliban have conducted many attacks that have resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Afghan civilians and security forces as well as numerous US and coalition personnel,” Cook said.
He called Mansour “an obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban”. Mansour also integrated the Haqqani Network, an independent arm of the Taliban, into the outfit, according its leader Sirajuddin Haqqani a larger role. According to reports and analysts, Haqqani now calls the shots in planning Taliban military operations in Afghanistan, targeting the local government and US-led coalition forces.