Mulla Mansour droned in Balochistan: US

FO confirms US had shared info with Nawaz, Gen Raheel Sharif late Saturday; says attack violated Pak sovereignty; President Obama authorised attack; Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah confirms death; Mansour’s car attacked in Dalbandin; Kerry confirms he had talked to Nawaz over phone; Taliban commanders dismiss report of killing; two charred bodies recovered from a smouldering vehicle

KABUL/WASHINGTON/Islamabad: The United States has killed the Afghan Taliban leader Mulla Akhtar Mansour in an air strike in a remote border area just inside Pakistan, Afghanistan said on Sunday, in an attack likely to dash any immediate prospects for peace talks.

Saturday’s strike, which the US officials said was authorised by President Barack Obama and included multiple drones, showed the US was prepared to go after the Taliban leadership.

Afghan government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, and the country’s top intelligence agency, said he had been killed.

“Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike ... His car was attacked in Dalbandin,” Abdullah said in a post on Twitter, referring to a district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province just over the border with Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States 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 the US personnel and Afghans, Kerry told 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,” Kerry said.

Kerry said the leaders of both Pakistan and Afghanistan were notified of the Saturday air strike but he declined to say if they were told before or after it had been carried out. He said he had spoken to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by telephone.

The Taliban have made no official statement but two commanders close to Mansour denied he was dead.

Ghani’s office said on Sunday Taliban who wanted to end bloodshed should return from “alien soil” and join peace efforts.

A US official in Washington speaking on condition of anonymity said drones targeted Mansour and another combatant in a vehicle in a remote area of Balochistan, southwest of the town of Ahmad Wal.

A Pakistani official in the area said a car had been blown up and two unidentified people had been killed.

It was not clear how the vehicle was blown up and the two bodies had been taken to a hospital, said the official, who declined to be identified.

One of the Taliban commanders who dismissed the report of Mansour’s killing said it had nevertheless spread alarm.

“This rumour has created panic among our followers across Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the senior Taliban

member said by telephone, adding he was telling his comrades to ignore the report.

In December, Mansour was reportedly wounded and possibly killed in a shootout at the house of an insurgent leader in Pakistan. The Taliban eventually released an audio recording, purportedly from Mansour, to dispel the reports.

A US intelligence analyst said Mansour had been in a power struggle with another commander whose deputy was killed last year in what officials think was a fight with Mansour's faction.

But the US official cautioned against concluding that a shakeup might diminish the Taliban's broader sense of strength, given recent gains they had made.

"It's hard to see much incentive for them to start compromising now, with the fighting just heating up again," the official said.

Afghanistan's main intelligence service, the National Directorate for Security (NDS) also confirmed Mansour's death. 

"Mansour was being closely monitored for a while, until he was targeted along with other fighters aboard a vehicle," the NDS said.

Pakistani security officials said they had recovered two bodies charred beyond recognition from a smoldering vehicle at the scene of the attack.  

Mariana Baabar from Islamabad adds: Pakistan confirmed on Sunday that the US had shared information with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif late Saturday that a drone strike was carried out in Pakistan near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area, in which reportedly the Afghan Taliban leader Mulla Akhtar Mansour was targeted.

Failing short of condemning this drone strike the Foreign Office spokesman announced: “While further investigations are being carried out, Pakistan wishes to once again state that the drone attack was a violation of its sovereignty, an issue which has been raised with the United States in the past as well”.

Apparently not pleased with this drone strike taking out a key Taliban fighter, the spokesman pointed out that the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) held on May 18 had reiterated that a ‘politically negotiated settlement’ was the only viable option for lasting peace in Afghanistan and called upon the Taliban to give up violence and join peace talks.

The spokesman did not confirm the death of Mulla Mansour.

Giving further details, the spokesman in a statement said according to the information gathered so far, a person named Wali Muhammad s/o Shah Muhammad carrying a Pakistani passport and an ID Card, resident of Qilla Abdullah, entered Pakistan from Taftan border on May 21.

“His passport was bearing a valid Iranian visa. He was traveling on a vehicle hired from a transport company in Taftan. This vehicle was found destroyed at Kochaki along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border”, he added.

If it is indeed Mulla Mansour who had been traveling on a Pakistani passport and ID card, questions will be raised as to how he acquired the same.

The driver’s name was Muhammad Azam whose body has been identified and collected by his relatives. 

“The identity of the second body is being verified on the basis of evidence found at the site of the incident and other relevant information”, said the spokesman.