WASHINGTON/KABUL, May 22: Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a rare US drone strike deep inside Pakistan, Afghanistan announced today, inflicting a body blow to the insurgents and removing a major “threat” to the fragile peace process in war-torn Afghanistan.
Mansour and another militant were targeted in a precision air strike by multiple unmanned drones operated by US Special Operations forces yesterday as the duo rode in a vehicle in a remote area near Ahmad Wal town in the restive Baluchistan province close to the Afghan border, US officials said.
The drone strike, which US officials said was authorised by President Barack Obama, showed America was ready to target the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, which Afghanistan has repeatedly accused of sheltering the militants.
Afghanistan’s main spy agency said Mansour, said to be in his early 50s, was killed in a US drone attack inside Pakistan.
“Mansour was being closely monitored for a while… Until he was targeted along with other fighters aboard a vehicle… in Balochistan,” the National Directorate of Security said in a brief statement today.
Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri also confirmed Mansour’s death.
Addressing a press conference in the Afghan capital, he called on the group to select a new leader and then come to Kabul and act like a political party.
Speaking to reporters in the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw, US Secretary of State John Kerry said, “Mansour posed… An imminent threat to US personnel, Afghan civilians and Afghan security forces.”
Kerry said Mansour was also directly opposed to peace negotiations. The US “has long maintained that an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned reconciliation process is the surest way to ensure peace… Peace is what we want, Mansour was a threat to that,” Kerry said.
“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 Pentagon earlier confirmed it targeted Mansour.
“Mansour has been the leader of the Taliban and actively involved with planning attacks against facilities in Kabul and across Afghanistan, presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and security forces, our personnel, and Coalition partners,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
“Mansour has been an obstacle to peace and reconciliation between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, prohibiting Taliban leaders from participating in peace talks with the Afghan Government that could lead to an end to the conflict,” he said.
The drone strike inside Pakistan was a rare one since US Navy Seals killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a stealth raid in the Pakistani Garrison city of Abbottabad in 2011.
Mansour assumed the leadership in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and the one-eyed reclusive long-time spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar, who died in Pakistan in 2013.
“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 Afghan security forces as well as numerous US and Coalition personnel,” Pentagon Press Secretary Cook said.
The United States informed both Pakistan and Afghanistan shortly after the strike, a senior White House official said.
In Kabul, Afghan CEO Abdullah Abdullah said that if Mansour’s death is confirmed, major changes within the ranks of the Taliban could be expected as a number of Taliban leaders could join the peace process.
Abdullah said Mansour had been a major obstacle in the way of the Afghan peace process and that his death would be a big blow to the insurgent group.
Mansour’s death would further sink prospects of any immediate direct peace talks between the Taliban and the quadrilateral group of Pakistan, the US, Afghanistan and China, Pakistani media reports suggested.
The drone strikes come days after the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan held another round of talks in Islamabad aimed at reviving the long-stalled direct peace talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban.
The death of Mansour was also hailed by top American lawmakers.
“I welcome the news that Mullah Akhtar Mansour has met his just end. I salute the skill and professionalism of the US Armed Forces who carried out this mission. Their actions have made America and Afghanistan safer,” said Senator John McCain, Chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee.
“It is the one force most able and willing to turn Afghanistan into a terrorist safe haven once again,” he said.
“If verified, the death of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour would be an important victory in the fight against terror and welcome news to our military personnel in Afghanistan and the Afghan Government,” said Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“If Pakistan would play a more constructive role, we could destabilise the Taliban far more rapidly,” Corker said.
Mansour earlier 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 Baluchistan province.
According to the UN Security Council sanctions list, Mansour previously was the Taliban’s Minister of Civil Aviation and Transportation and was considered “a prominent member of the Taliban leadership.”
“He was repatriated to Afghanistan in September 2006 following detention in Pakistan.
He was an active recruiter in the Taliban’s fight against the Afghan Government, and before his appointment as Omar’s deputy in 2010, he was chief of military affairs for a regional Taliban military council that oversees operations in Nimruz and Helmand provinces, the UN said. (PTI)
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