In a major victory in the war against terrorism, Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was “likely killed” in a U.S. airstrike in a remote area of western Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, a United States official has said.
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Afghan officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named as they were not authorized to speak to media on the subject, said the drone strike took place in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, in the Ahmad Wal area.
But an official not authorised to discuss the operation publicly said Mansour and a second male combatant accompanying him in a vehicle were probably killed.
Cook called Mansour “an obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban” and said he was involved in planning attacks that threatened U.S., Afghan and allied forces.
Diplomatic sources in Washington said that Mullah Mansour’s death would not cause any major concerns in Pakistan’s power circles.
The driver was identified as Muhammad Azam and the passenger as Wali Muhammad, a resident from Chaman, a town on the Pakistan-Afghan border, the report said.
Even so, officials offered caution because early assessments of the deaths of militant and terrorist leaders in US strikes have proved inaccurate in the past.
It also underscored the belief among US commanders that under Mansour’s leadership, the Taliban have grown increasingly close to militant groups like al-Qaida, posing a direct threat to USA security.
Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour is believed to have been killed in a US, airstrike.
A US intelligence analyst said Mansour had been in a power struggle with Mullah Mohammad Rasoul, whose deputy, Mullah Dadullah, was killed late a year ago in what officials think was a fight with Mansour’s more hard-line faction.
Haqqani was appointed as the second in command after Mullah Akhtar assumed control of the Taliban leadership past year.
The Taliban denied that Mansour was killed. “We heard about these baseless reports but this not first time”, one Taliban commander close to Mansour told Reuters.
The official says the attack was carried out by unmanned aircraft operated by U.S. Special Operations Forces. That would have been 3 p.m. on Saturday in Pakistan.
Even as the Taliban operating inside Afghanistan remain a formidable and violent force, Mr. Mansour has had difficulties uniting his ranks after months of infighting. Gen. Votel is the highest-ranking USA military official to travel to Syria during the war.
By 2015, Mansour was officially elected as the head of the Taliban, however, before that date, there were previous records about attacks and deaths that might have been planned and perpetrated by Mansour.
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In December, Mullah Akhtar was reportedly wounded and possibly killed in a shootout at the house of another insurgent leader near Quetta in Pakistan. His succession widened the internal split between fighters who want to use battlefield gains to strengthen the Taliban’s hand in negotiations with Kabul and those who want to continue the insurgency and ultimately overthrow the Afghan government.
