- US president says American forces will continue to go after threats on Pakistani soil
- Says Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s killing is an ‘important milestone’ in Afghan peace efforts
- Islamabad summons US envoy to convey concern over air strike inside Pakistani territory
- Tehran denies Pakistani claim that Mullah Mansour had entered Balochistan from Iran
President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US air strike, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan, as Pakistan summoned American envoy David Hale to the Foreign Office to express concern over the US air strike inside Pakistani territory on Saturday.
Saturday’s bombing raid, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil, marks a major blow to the militant movement, which saw a new resurgence under Mansour.
“We have removed the leader of an organisation that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like al Qaeda,” the US president said in a statement.
Obama, who is on a three day visit to Vietnam, said Mansour had rejected efforts “to seriously engage in peace talks and end the violence that has taken the lives of countless innocent Afghan men, women and children.”
He called on the Taliban’s remaining leadership to engage in peace talks as the “only real path” to ending the attritional conflict.
In his statement, Obama said American forces would continue to go after threats on Pakistani soil.
“We will work on shared objectives with Pakistan, where terrorists that threaten all our nations must be denied safe haven,” he said.
Senior Taliban sources have also confirmed Mansour’s killing to media, adding that a shura (council) is under way to select a new leader.
Mansour was elevated to the leadership of the Taliban in July 2015 following the revelation that the group’s founder Mullah Omar had died two years earlier.
He was killed on Saturday near the town of Ahmad Lal in the southwestern part of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, when missiles fired from a drone struck the car he was travelling in.
It was believed to be the first time the United States has targeted a senior Taliban figure in Pakistan.
Pakistan, which says it is hosting the Afghan Taliban’s top leadership in order to exert influence over them, has lambasted the United States over the drone attack, calling it a violation of its sovereignty.
But the strike could signal a fresh blow for US-Pakistan ties, which have improved markedly in recent years since the killing of al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden in 2011.
The US has carried out hundreds of drone strikes in the Pakistan, mainly in the country’s border tribal regions with Afghanistan, with leaked documents showing Islamabad had quietly consented, despite publicly protesting.
This time, however, both sides insist Pakistan was informed only after the fact. Leaked diplomatic cables from 2010 had indicated that Islamabad wanted Balochistan to remain off-limits.
The meeting of the Taliban’s Supreme Council continued into its second day Monday, according to senior militant sources, though the group has yet to release an official statement.
A senior Taliban source told media the killing had sent shockwaves through the leadership and many were laying low in Pakistan while some had fled across the border to Afghanistan.
“The shura meeting is continuing at an undisclosed location, they keep on moving due to the fear of US drone strike,” the source told media.
PAKISTAN PROTESTS DRONE ATTACK:
Meanwhile at the Foreign Office in Islamabad, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi pointed out to US envoy David Hale that “the drone strike was a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and a breach of the United Nation’s Charter that guarantees the inviolability of the territorial integrity of its member states”.
Fatemi also emphasised that “such actions could adversely impact the ongoing efforts by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) for facilitating peace talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban”, read a statement.
The special assistant further underlined that Pakistan and United States had been closely coordinating in the fight against the menace of terrorism and that this cooperation needed further strengthening.
IRAN DENIES MANSOUR ENTERED PAKISTAN FROM COUNTRY:
In a related development, Iran has denied reports that Mullah Akhtar Mansour entered Pakistan from the Islamic republic before being killed in a United States (US) drone strike, state media reported.
Pakistani security officials said on Sunday that the man killed on Saturday in Balochistan, believed at the time to be Mansour, had just returned from Iran when his vehicle was attacked.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted by the official IRNA news agency on Monday as denying Mansour had been in the country before the attack.
“The competent authorities of the Islamic republic deny that this person on this date crossed Iran’s border and into Pakistan,” he said.
“Iran welcomes any positive action leading to peace and stability in Afghanistan,” he added, without elaborating.
Pakistani identity documents found on the body of the man believed to be Mansour named him as Muhammad Wali, and showed he had left for Iran on March 28 and returned the day he was killed.
Iran supports the Afghan government in its fight against the Taliban group.
With inputs from wire agencies