The United States killed the leader of the Afghan Taliban in a drone strike in a remote border area inside Pakistan, Afghanistan said on Sunday. The attack is likely to dash any immediate prospect for peace talks.
The death of Mullah Akhtar Mansour could trigger a succession battle and deepen fractures that emerged in the insurgent movement after the death of its founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was confirmed in 2015, more than two years after it occurred.
Saturday’s strike, which U.S. officials said was authorised by President Barack Obama and included multiple drones, showed the U.S. was prepared to go after the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, which the government in Kabul has repeatedly accused of sheltering the insurgents.
Threat to U.S. security
It also underscored the belief among U.S. commanders that under Mansour’s leadership, the Taliban have grown close to militant groups like al Qaeda, posing a direct threat to U.S. security.
The U.S. did not confirm Mansour’s death but Afghan government chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, and the country’s top intelligence agency said the attack had been successful.
“Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike... His car was attacked in Dahl Bandin,” Mr. Abdullah said in a post on Twitter, referring to a district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province just over the border with Afghanistan.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. had conducted a precision air strike that targeted Mansour “in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.”
Mansour posed a “continuing, imminent threat” to U.S. personnel and Afghans, Mr. Kerry said at a news conference while on a visit to Myanmar. “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,” he said. The Taliban did not make any official statement.
