The Saturday drone strike, which U.S. officials said was authorised by President Barack Obama, showed the United States was prepared to go after the Taleban leadership in Pakistan, which the government in Kabul has repeatedly accused of sheltering the insurgents.
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“This is a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty”, Mr Sharif told reporters in London, saying it was still unclear who was killed.
Afghan and Taliban leaders confirmed Sunday that Mansoor was killed in the strike the previous day near the Afghan border.
USA drone strike on Taliban leader – what happens next?
Kerry had informed him about the drone attack, he added, but maintained that he was informed about the strike after it had been conducted. While the passport bore a different name, the picture was reported to resemble older photos of the Taliban leader.
In an essay published in The Wall Street Journal, Petraeus and his co-author, military analyst Michael O’Hanlon, said because of the Taliban’s long ties with al-Qaida and the Haqqani network, its aims of overthrowing the Afghan government, and its continuing push to seize territory, the United States should rely more on air power to help defeat the group.
Ghani and Abdullah serve in a so-called national unity government brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry following a divisive 2014 election.
The Afghan intelligence agency says he is dead. This vehicle was found destroyed at Kochaki along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Foreign Office said.
Muhammad noted that most senior Taliban commanders come from southern Afghanistan and would seek to install a leader from that same region.
While it’s hard to tell who will emerge as the Taliban’s next leader, the rank-and-file is likely to back Mullah Omar’s son, according to Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistan-based author who wrote a book on the Taliban. The second source, a senior administration official, said it would likely take days to get “physical confirmation” because of the remote location.
A Taliban commander close to Mansour, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, denied Mansour was dead.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a USA official on Saturday said Mansour was targeted and “likely killed” in a United States drone strike in a remote area of Pakistan along the Afghan border. USA secretary of state John Kerry said, “Mansour posed an imminent threat to U.S. personnel, Afghan civilians and Afghan security forces”.
Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and defence ministry spokesman Daulat Waziri also said that Mansour had been killed.
The Taliban, who announced the start of their annual spring offensive last month, have already stepped up their campaign against the Western-backed Kabul government for the season.
Pakistan also accused the U.S. of interfering in the peace process in neighboring Afghanistan, saying that the strike allegedly killing the Taliban leader was carried out amid global talks aimed at drawing the militant organization into negotiations.
Residents reached by telephone said a Toyota coming from Taftan, a town near the Pakistani border with Iran, was targeted on a highway about 40 miles from the border and two people inside were killed.
As a result of all of these developments, the next president should announce a new policy in which a robust US noncombat military force remains in Afghanistan for many years.
Mansour formerly headed the leadership council of the Taliban and Islamic scholars, also known as the Quetta Shura, which is composed of longtime leaders who direct the Taliban’s operations from Pakistan’s Balochistan province, according to the Jamestown Foundation, a global research and analysis group.
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In December, Mansour was reportedly wounded and possibly killed in a shootout at the house of another Taliban leader near Quetta in Pakistan.
