Vehicle said to be carrying Taliban emir Mullah Mansour when he was killed in a drone strike on May 21 in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. (Associated Press photo)
The White House confirmed the death of Taliban emir Mullah Mansour today, two days after the US said it targeted the group’s leader in an unprecedented airstrike in southwestern Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
President Obama called Mansour’s death an “important milestone” in a statement from Vietnam, adding that the Taliban should “seize the opportunity” and join peace talks with Afghanistan.
But the likely successor to Mansour, Sirajuddin Haqqani – of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network – is even more unlikely than his predecessor to negotiate a peace agreement.
“Mansour rejected efforts by the Afghan government to seriously engage in peace talks and end the violence that has taken the lives of countless innocent Afghan men, women and children,” President Obama said in the statement. “The Taliban should seize the opportunity to pursue the only real path for ending this long conflict – joining the Afghan government in a reconciliation process that leads to lasting peace and stability.”
President Obama later vowed in a press conference with reporters in Vietnam that the US is “not re-entering the day-to-day combat missions that are currently being conducted by Afghanistan forces.”
“This does not represent a shift in our approach,” President Obama said, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The May 21 drone strike which killed Mansour was the first by the US in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, where the Taliban’s top leadership had been known to setup shop in Quetta. Previously, the US military almost exclusively limited drone strikes to Pakistan’s tribal agencies. According to data compiled by The Long War Journal, May 21 marked the first of 391 drone strikes conducted outside of North or South Waziristan.
Since Mansour was believed to be operating under the auspices and protection of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the attack raises questions whether the US was operating in conjunction or on a tip from Pakistani intelligence, or without Pakistani permission.
from Long War Journal – The Long War Journal http://ift.tt/20pR3gA
via Defense News
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