Pakistan says U.S. drone strike (that killed Taliban leader Mansour) violated its sovereignty

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Afghanistan's spy agency has confirmed that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been killed, after the US targeted him in a drone strike.
Afghanistan’s spy agency has confirmed that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been killed, after the US targeted him in a drone strike.

Pakistan accused the United States on Sunday of violating its sovereignty with a drone strike against the leader of the Afghan Taliban, in perhaps the most high-profile U.S. incursion into Pakistani territory since the 2011 raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

Afghanistan said the attack killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour, which, if confirmed, could trigger a succession battle within an insurgency that has proved resilient despite a decade and a half of U.S. military deployments to Afghanistan.

Afghan guerrilla commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, a possible successor to Mansour, would likely prove an even more implacable foe of Afghan government forces and their U.S. allies.

Sirajuddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin Haqqani

Still, the Saturday drone strike, which U.S. officials said was authorized by President Barack Obama, showed the United States was prepared to go after the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, which the government in Kabul has repeatedly accused of sheltering the insurgents.

Pakistan protested on Sunday, saying the U.S. government did not inform Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif beforehand.

“This is a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” Sharif told reporters in London.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Washington only notified Pakistan after the strike.

IRAN AND TALIBAN

Mullah Akhtar Mansour the Taliban leader was killed in an airstrike ne at the Pakistan Afghanistan border
Mullah Akhtar Mansour the Taliban leader was killed in an airstrike ne at the Pakistan Afghanistan border

It was unclear how long Mansour might have been inside Pakistan before the strike. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry disclosed that a passport found at the site of the strike, bearing a different name, carried a valid Iranian visa.

It added that the purported passport holder was believed to have returned to Pakistan from Iran on Saturday, the day of the drone strike targeting Mansour. Photos of the passport, bearing the name Wali Muhammad, seen by Reuters showed a passing resemblance to some of the old photos available of Mansour.

If it is confirmed that Mansour had traveled to Iran before his death, it would raise new questions about the Taliban’s use of neighbouring territories, including Iran.

‘KILLED IN A DRONE STRIKE’

The United States stopped short of formally declaring Mansour dead, a day after announcing the strike.

“At this point, we’re not quite prepared to confirm that he was killed, though it appears likely,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told “Fox News Sunday.”

Afghan government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, and the country’s top intelligence agency, said the attack had been successful.

“Taliban leader Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike … His car was attacked in Dahl Bandin,” Abdullah said in a post on Twitter, referring to a district in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province just over the border with Afghanistan.

The Taliban have made no official statement, but two Taliban sources said the Rahbari Shura, or leadership council, met on Sunday to begin considering the succession, a move that strongly suggested they accept that he is dead.

They considered Haqqani, seen by supporters as a strong leader who would defy the U.S. and Afghan governments, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, a potential unifier because of his father’s name, as well as former Guantanamo detainee Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir and Mullah Sherin.

The meeting was expected to continue on Monday and naming a new leader could take days or weeks, the sources said.

“Based purely on matters of hierarchy, (Haqqani) would be the favorite to succeed Mansour,” said Michael Kugelman, a senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Institute think tank.

POSED ‘CONTINUING, IMMINENT THREAT’

The drone strike underscored the belief among U.S. commanders that the Taliban under Mansour’s leadership have grown increasing close to militant groups like al Qaeda, posing a direct threat to U.S. security.

U.S Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had conducted a precision air strike that targeted Mansour “in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border”.

Mansour posed a “continuing, imminent threat” to U.S. personnel and Afghans, Kerry told a news conference while on a visit to Myanmar.

“If people want to stand in the way of peace and continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond and I think we responded appropriately,” Kerry said.

Efforts to broker talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban had already stalled after a suicide attack in Kabul last month that killed 64 people and prompted President Ashraf Ghani to prioritize military operations over negotiations.

But Ghani’s office said on Sunday the removal of Mansour could open the door to talks and that Taliban members who wanted to end bloodshed should return from “alien soil” and join peace efforts.

Pakistan has in the past denounced U.S. strikes on its soil, calling them a violation of sovereignty, but U.S. officials have said Pakistan had approved some strikes, in particular on militants fighting the Pakistani state.

A Pakistani official in the area said a car had been blown up and two unidentified people had been killed. It was not clear how the vehicle was blown up and the two bodies had been taken to a hospital, said the official, who declined to be identified.

One of the Taliban commanders who dismissed the report of Mansour’s killing said it had nevertheless spread alarm.

“This rumor has created panic among our followers across Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the senior Taliban member said by phone, adding he was telling his comrades to ignore the report.

In December, Mansour was reported to have been wounded and possibly killed in a shootout at the house of an insurgent leader in Pakistan. The Taliban eventually released an audio recording, purportedly from Mansour, to dispel the reports.

 

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22 responses to “Pakistan says U.S. drone strike (that killed Taliban leader Mansour) violated its sovereignty”

  1. Hind Abyad Avatar
    Hind Abyad

    And Pakistani Moudjahedin that Western media calls “moderate rebels” violated Syrian sovereignty.

    1. Rudy1947 Avatar
      Rudy1947

      Oh poo poo. Find some one who will care.

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        Who’s asking you to care poo poo. Zionist stooge.

  2. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    So sue the drone, Sharif. Anyway, your telephone lines were busy, and there was no time to call.
    Maybe it’s time to get the next guy coming up on the food chain, before he succeeds.
    Hey Sharif. Can you handle that one??

  3. PatienceTew Avatar
    PatienceTew

    I feel SO sorry for the poor Pakis! Going in and killing those terrorists like that!! And, WITHOUT permission!!!

  4. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    LOL which sovereignty?

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      In 2011 Turkey opened their borders with Syria (a sovereign country), illegally to fanatic Jihadists from over 80 different countries with Turkish stamped passports.

      1. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        in 2011 your uncle opened the doors of mazzeh and let go hundreds of the same fanatics. Before that he was smuggling these same fanatics from your other uncle’s Palestinian camp to Iraq. As long as they killed thousands of Iraqis and a few American soldiers you were cheering for them. Now that they came and bit you you’re crying foul? Learn some logic hind. You were doing good at math but you seem to have receded. Must be Dr Maher’s updates…
        Anyway the auto cleaning is happening, trash burning trash… and when finally the dust settles, it will be time for the mekenseh.
        A la poubelle les crottes

  5. Hind Abyad Avatar
    Hind Abyad

    Breaking: Syrian Army liberates Armenian Cemetery in Deir Ezzor
    https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-syrian-army-liberates-armenian-cemetery-deir-ezzor/ | Al-Masdar News

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Good they got the African ‘buddies of ISIS’ … but how many can be liberated from a cemetary ?? 😉

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        Very complicated Kurdish alliances .

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          With some lovely women too … mostly it’s the males who are ‘complicated’. 😉

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            FSA is like ISIS, Kurds made them pay a ‘huge price’. FSA messed again for the ‘huge price’, killing two non combatant women, cowards .
            https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/two-kurdish-negotiators-executed-free-syrian-army-azaz-video/

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Let’s just say they are all ‘Religionists’ first, of the same orders of magnitude.
            After that, with the exception of the unique ISIS, they are Tribalists.
            And expanses of ‘countryside togetherness’ beyond ‘as far as the eye can see’ seems to have been something unimaginable to everyone over there, except for the occasional dictator who loves to fly to Big Western Cities or the like, and simply allows the wife to shop as she wishes.
            Turks figure all the Kurds are a weird other tribe, and hasn’t helped create the best situation, ever since they became Muslims too.
            Seems to be beyond anything ‘the west’ tries over there, one way of the other.

          3. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            according to Al-Hayat newspaper on May 2, Ahrar al-Sham commander Abu Yazid Taftanaz said that the “Jaish al-Fateh operations room is coming back to life and it will include Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Ajnad al-Sham, Failaq al-Sham, Jaish al-Sunna, Lewaa al-Haq and Hezb al-Islami al-Turkestani.”

            On the next day, May 3, Jaish al Fateh’s English language twitter account pinned a tweet with the following picture and the hashtags #UNITY and #JAISHALFATH: ~ US Smoke and Mirrors to Protect Terrorist Proxies in Aleppo

          4. 5thDrawer Avatar
            5thDrawer

            Talk about smoke & mirrors …
            In the ‘Land of the Spring-Break’, and various other wonderful beach moments, where you can look but not touch too often (wink wink, nudge, nudge) … and where the most popular ‘Net-News’ focusses on bodies of both sexes (abs & asses (sorry, booties)) …..
            Now you can’t even look like you are actually having sex – just see images. hahahahahaa
            http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/crime/florida-man-gets-25-years-for-having-sex-on-the-beach/ar-AAcJ34K

            AND THAT was because a 3-year-old ‘saw’.?????
            Everyone watching didn’t think the little girl should need to have it explained … I guess. :-)))

      2. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        The jihadists apparently used a bulldozer to partially destroy St Elias Monastery, which dates back more than 1,500 years. Human bones from ancient graves are strewed amidst the rubble.

        Inside the monastery there is an Assyrian church and all Christian symbols in it have been destroyed. In the church graveyard, the gravestones have been trashed and all the crosses removed.

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar
          5thDrawer

          They have done everything to ‘bother’ any other sect or religion. Absolutely everything.
          Anarchistic thugs of their own invented ‘highest order’. We should expect no less.

  6. Rudy1947 Avatar
    Rudy1947

    Now that Pakistan has done their civic duty for god, country and the masses, their leadership are discussing the whereabouts of the second and third in command of the Taliban.

  7. Ray Householder Avatar
    Ray Householder

    Potus tried to call the Pakis, but the phones were busy with our state dept on the amount of the next foreign aid check they were getting. It is time to cut the money flow and provide nothing more than food and medicines to these backward bozos.

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