MONITORING DESK
Senior Taliban commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah has been killed in a clash in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.
Mullah Mansoor Dadullah was one of the opponents of new Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
“Mansoor Dadullah was killed early Thursday,” a Taliban leader told a private media outfit from an undisclosed location over telephone from Afghanistan.
Tolo News citing officials added, “Mullah Mansour Dadullah – deputy leader of the new breakaway Taliban group – killed in clashes in Zabul.”
Fierce clashes were ongoing between two rival Taliban groups in southern Afghanistan. Skirmishes have been taking place in southern Zabul province between fighters loyal to the widely-recognised Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour and followers of Mansoor Dadullah, a deputy of splinter-group leader Mohamed Rasool who announced his own faction earlier this month.
Dadullah, the brother of a top Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah Akhund, had rejected Akhtar Mansoor as the new leader and even claimed that Mullah Omar had not died of natural causes but was killed. He now leads ‘Dadullah Mahaz’ and is based in Zabul province.
