Drone killed Taliban chief, Afghans say

His death helps clear path for peace, top leaders assert

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour
Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone strike in a remote border region of Pakistan, Afghanistan's top intelligence agency confirmed Sunday.

His death, hailed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, is seen as a game-changer in ending the long insurgent war in Afghanistan.

In a rare show of unity, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah welcomed the news of Mansour's death, a man who unleashed violence against innocent civilians in Afghanistan and was widely regarded as an obstacle to peace within the militant group.

Mansour, believed to be in his 50s, was killed when a U.S. drone fired on his vehicle in the southwestern Pakistan province of Baluchistan. He had emerged as the successor to Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose 2013 death was revealed only last summer.

Mansour "engaged in deception, concealment of facts, drug-smuggling and terrorism while intimidating, maiming and killing innocent Afghans," Ghani said in a statement on his official Twitter account.

"A new opportunity presents itself to those Taliban who are willing to end war and bloodshed," he said.

Mansour was "the main figure preventing the Taliban joining the peace process," Abdullah said, speaking live on television as he chaired a Cabinet meeting. "From the day he took over the Taliban following the death of Mullah Omar, he intensified violence against ordinary citizens, especially in Afghanistan."

Ghani and Abdullah serve in a national unity government brokered by Kerry after a divisive 2014 election. As president and chief executive, the two rarely see eye to eye on even the most important decisions for a country beset by war for almost 40 years, including appointments to key security posts.

On Sunday, they were on the same page.

A spokesman for the Taliban didn't immediately answer calls made to his mobile phone Sunday. The group, which runs a website and regularly issues news releases, has made no official public statement referring to the drone strike. Emran Khalil, a member of the Taliban press team, wrote on Twitter that reports about Mansour's death were "completely wrong and baseless."

The Associated Press reported, however, that a senior Taliban commander said Mansour was killed Friday night.

Kerry hailed the news of Mansour's demise even before it was officially confirmed.

"Peace is what we want. Mansour was a threat to that effort," Kerry said, speaking from Burma. "He also was directly opposed to peace negotiations and to the reconciliation process. It is time for Afghans to stop fighting and to start building a real future together."

His death clears the way for a succession battle, the movement's second in less than a year. Whoever wins that battle will largely determine the direction for the Taliban and the beleaguered Afghan peace process.

When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, Mansour held several positions in the government.

In 1999, when the United Nations imposed sanctions on the Taliban, Mansour was aviation minister, trying to keep the national airline operating without spare parts, and a military commander in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

Among the Taliban leaders at the time, Mansour was considered among those closest to Omar, and like the Taliban founder, Mansour rarely traveled to Kabul -- instead running his Aviation Ministry from the southern city of Kandahar.

Mansour was a member of Afghanistan's Ishaqzai tribe in Kandahar, the spiritual headquarters of the Taliban. His tribal affiliation speaks to his significance as an ethnic Pashtun, whose members are the backbone of the Taliban.

Mansour leaves behind a checkered history during his brief reign. He ascended to the leadership shrouded in controversy and accusations from many of his own senior commanders. That internal bitterness stemmed from the revelation last summer of Omar's death more than two years earlier -- a fact that Mansour and his clique seem to have hidden not only from the outside world but from other senior Taliban commanders.

Mansour's subsequent formal coronation as Taliban leader prompted open revolt inside the group for several months, with members of Omar's family rebelling and Taliban ground forces splitting into factional warfare.

But Mansour eventually mended the rift, appointing as his deputy Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful semi-independent al-Qaida-affiliated Haqqani network faction. Haqqani helped get Omar's brother and son back into the fold in exchange for senior leadership positions.

While he played peacemaker inside the Taliban, Mansour pursued an aggressive line with the Kabul government, shunning all overtures for peace and launching a series of bold attacks.

In September 2015, Taliban fighters surprised Afghan security forces and overran the northern city of Kunduz -- the first time since their regime was overthrown in the 2001 U.S. invasion that they had captured a provincial capital.

They held the city for four days before retreating in the face of a coordinated U.S.-backed government assault, but the result was an enduring embarrassment for Ghani's government. In the aftermath, Mansour boasted about the prowess of his men and promised that the Taliban's return to power in Kabul was only a matter of time.

Mansour's death inside Pakistan could further damage the relationship between Kabul and Islamabad.

Afghan and U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of keeping the Taliban leadership safe in cities across the porous and lawless border. A senior Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, complained before Mansour's death was announced that Taliban fighters were being taken from the battlefields of Afghanistan to Pakistani hospitals.

In a statement late Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry repeated the country's protest of drone attacks on its territory. It also repeated Pakistan's preference to settle the protracted war in Afghanistan through talks, calling on the Taliban to renounce violence in favor of negotiations.

"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," it said.

Ghani has not hidden his own frustrations with Islamabad.

His government initially embraced Pakistan's role as a liaison to the Taliban and engaged in four-nation meetings with Pakistan, China and the U.S. seeking to get the Taliban to the negotiating table. But he has publicly soured on Islamabad. At the most recent quartet meeting, Kabul declined to send a high-level delegation and was represented only by the ambassador to Pakistan.

Political analyst Haroun Mir noted Mansour's apparent confidence in moving around the Pakistani province of Baluchistan in an unarmored car with no convoy, decoys or other security precautions. That shows "the Taliban are active and move freely with the support of the Pakistani authorities," Mir said.

Mansour's death could open a new chapter in Kabul's quest for enduring peace with the Taliban, Mir said. The time has come, he added, for "the Afghan government to get some benefit out of this, in bringing the Taliban into the peace process."

Information for this article was contributed by Lynne O'Donnell, Mirwais Khan, Rahim Faiez, Kathy Gannon and Matthew Lee of The Associated Press and by Eltaf Najafizada, Kamran Haider and Eduard Gismatullin of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 05/23/2016

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