The Afghan government says that a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan has killed the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency confirmed on Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike.
The United States earlier said it carried out an air strike on the leader of the Afghan Taliban, probably killing him in a remote border area just inside Pakistan.
Both Afghanistan’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, and the country’s intelligence agency said Sunday that Mansour was killed in the strike. But U.S. military officials maintained that they did not have definitive proof of his death. In Pakistan, officials in Baluchistan said they recovered a charred vehicle and two bodies in the area.
The Taliban have made no official statement but two commanders close to Mansour denied he was dead.
With the report of Mansour’s death, attention has focused on his deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of a notorious network blamed for most big suicide attacks in Kabul.
