A leadership council within the Taliban has already begun meeting to choose a successor to Mansour, who was killed in a drone strike.
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The US has carried out hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan, mainly in the tribal regions along the Afghan border, with leaked documents showing Islamabad had quietly consented, despite publicly protesting. Washington has not issued an official confirmation.
During an interview with an American news organisation Sirajuddin admitted to planning the attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul in 2008 that killed six people.
But Mullah Mansour was a danger to American forces there, he said.
Meanwhile, former U.S ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmai Khalilzad has said that the U.S can increase pressure on Pakistan. This was a clear-headed move that should get Pakistan’s attention, and it should raise the anxiety of Taliban leaders who have come to take safe refuge for granted.
The Pakistani government has condemned drone strikes all along, terming them a violation of territorial sovereignty, and had already conveyed a set of “red lines” to the U.S. in 2010, specifically mentioning attacks in Balochistan as a no-go.
It was unclear how long Mansour might have been inside Pakistan before the US strike. The drone strike occurred Sunday in Baluchistan, a Pakistani province. Photos of the passport, bearing the name Wali Muhammad, seen by Reuters showed a passing resemblance to some of the old photos available of Mansour. But in a reflection of its disarray, the Taliban still wasn’t corroborating their leader’s death.
Those rules allow for airstrikes in Afghanistan for three reasons: strikes for defensive purposes if there is a direct threat to US and coalition forces, against remnants of al-Qaeda or in extreme situations to prevent overruns of key positions.
Mansoor, who was believed to be around 48, formally assumed the leadership of the Taliban previous year following the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted by the official IRNA news agency on Monday as denying Mansour had been in the country before the attack.
“If people want to stand in the way of peace and continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond and I think we responded appropriately”, Kerry said.
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The special assistant also emphasized that such actions could adversely impact the ongoing efforts by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group for facilitating peace talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban. “And then also, that it know that there’s only one option for the Taliban and that is to pursue a peaceful resolution to the conflict”, Toner said in a subtle warning to the Taliban. “If we’re really going to give the air power, the support necessary to make certain that the Afghans can hold their ground against the Taliban”, Royce said. Mansour repeatedly turned down peace talks and negotiations by the government, and was the commander in the seizing of Kunduz in September of past year.
