Afgan Taliban sources confirm death of Mansourin US Drone attack

Afgan Taliban sources confirm death of

Mansourin US Drone attack

Kabul: Senior Afghan Taliban sources on Sunday, 22^nd May 2016 confirmed the death of their chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike in Pakistan, adding a shura or council is underway to decide his successor.

"I can say with good authority that Mullah Mansour is no more," a senior Taliban source told AFP.  Mansour's death was confirmed by two other senior figures, who said the group's top leaders were gathering in Quetta to name their future chief.

The apparent elimination of Mansour, who had consolidated power following a bitter Taliban leadership struggle over the past year, could also spark new succession battles within the fractious movement.

But both Afghanistan's main spy agency, and the country's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, asserted that Mansour had been killed in the attack.

"Mansour was being closely monitored for a while... until he was targeted along with other fighters aboard a vehicle," Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said in a statement.

US officials maintained they had no definitive proof of his death in multiple drone strikes, authorised by President Barack Obama, in the remote Pakistani town of Ahmad Wal in Balochistan province.

The deaths of Taliban leaders have often been falsely reported. Mansour himself was rumoured to have been killed last December.