The Taliban confirm the death of the leader of the group, Mullah Mansour. A few hours ago, Pentagon sources gave news of the raid, authorized by President Obama, which would have taken place yesterday in a remote area along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mansour was traveling in a vehicle.
The official note from the White House is awaited. Two missiles would have been launched against the vehicle of the Taliban leader, following information from the US special forces present on the ground. The president of the Senate Armed Services Commission, John McCain, said he was happy with the raid: “Mansour has met his fate, now we must intensify the attacks against the Taliban. We cannot allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for global terrorists. "
Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was recognized as the new Taliban leader last September, in a statement posted on the group's website. At that juncture, Mullah Omar's brother and the latter's eldest son declared their support for Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who had run the organization after the leader's death in 2013.
The estimated number of Taliban guerrillas is about 35: essentially a coalition on a regional basis, largely held together by Mullah Omar. The Shura of Quetta decreed Mansoor as the new "emir" on July 30, but a powerful Taliban faction did not recognize this authority, siding with Omar's eldest son, 26-year-old Mohammad Yaqoub Mullah. Internal tensions between the Taliban led to the suspension of the peace talks already started, but interrupted after the announcement of Omar's death.
Mansoor himself disavowed the talks with the Afghan government (even if he participated in some cognitive meetings), calling into question any kind of preliminary agreement reached. It should be noted that the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, confirmed the terrorist group's loyalty to Mansoor.
Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor should have been born in the village of Kariz, in the Maiwand district, in the province of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. It should have been born between the 1960 and the 1965. Of Pashtun ethnicity, belongs to the Ishaqzai tribe, of the Durrani tribal confederation. During the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Mansoor joined the paramilitary group founded by Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, leader of Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami. It was then that he met one of the leading commanders of the movement, Mohammad Omar.
After the war he moved and Quetta resumed his religious education. Arrived in Peshawar, he completed his studies at the madrasa of Darul Uloom Haqqania, the same as Omar, until 1995. Mansoor would have joined the Taliban to fight the warlords. Appointed head of security at Kandahar airport, following precise instructions from Mohammed Omar, he became civil aviation minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the 1996 to the 2001.
In 2001, Afghan President Hamid Karzai granted him an amnesty. The USA, which knew the profile of Mansoor and the other Taliban commanders well, did not believe me in their conversion and started a series of raids aimed at their capture or elimination. Having fled to Pakistan, he helped shape the new Taliban. In 2006, the Pentagon listed Akhtar Masoor as one of the 23 leading figures in the movement.
