Death of Akhtar Mansour
2016 airstrike in Pakistan / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
On 21 May 2016, Akhtar Mansour was killed in a U.S. military drone strike on the N-40 National Highway in Pakistan[1] near Ahmad Wal, not far from the Pakistan–Afghanistan border; Mansour had crossed earlier that day from Iran into Pakistan through the Taftan, Balochistan, border crossing, some 450 kilometres (280 mi) away from the spot where he was killed.[2][3][4]
Death of Akhtar Mansour | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the War in Afghanistan and the drone strikes in Pakistan | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Taliban | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Barack Obama John Kerry | Akhtar Mansour † | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Unknown | Military of the Taliban | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
None |
3 killed
|
The following day, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States had "conducted a precision airstrike that targeted Taliban leader Mullah Mansour in a remote area of the Afghanistan–Pakistan border" against Mansour that had likely killed him, and stated that Mansour "posed a continuing, imminent threat" to U.S. personnel and Afghans.[5]
On 23 May 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed that Mansour had been killed in the American airstrike that he had sanctioned, and stated that Mansour had been planning attacks against U.S. targets in Kabul.[6] Obama stated afterwards that he had hoped Mansour's death would lead to the Taliban joining a peace process.[7][8] The death of Mansour was also later officially confirmed separately by the Afghan government and members of the Taliban.[2][6]