Washington (Web Desk) – Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was targeted and likely killed in an airstrike in a remote area of Pakistan along Afghan border on Saturday.
According to a US official, the strike occurred around 6 a.m. ET Saturday morning in a remote area of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, southwest of the town of Ahmad Wal.
Mansour was the target of the strike, and a second adult male combatant traveling with him in a vehicle also was likely killed, the official added.
US officials are still assessing the results, the official said.
The strike was carried out by multiple unmanned aircraft operated by US Special Operations forces, CNN reported. There was no collateral damage, the official added.
The Pentagon confirmed the strike in a statement but didn’t say whether Mansour was killed.
“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,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in the statement. “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.”
The Taliban revealed last summer that Mansour assumed command following the death of longtime leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died in Pakistan in 2013.
Mansour formerly 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 Balochistan province, according to the Jamestown Foundation, a global research and analysis group.
