Secretary of State John Kerry has said Mullah Mansour, the Afghan Taliban leader – who was targeted in Pakistan-Afghanistan border region with a precision US airstrike on Saturday – directly opposed reconciliation efforts, and that the action demonstrates American resolve to bring stability to the conflict-hit country.
Speaking in Naypyitaw, Burma on Sunday, Kerry said he also talked to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif about the action – that took place on Pakistani soil in Dalbandin, Balochistan – and likely killed Mansour while he was traveling in a car. However, Kerry did not say if Pakistan was notified of the strike before or after it took place.
The action against the militant was first reported by the US Department of Defense. Kerry’s comments marked first detailed account by an American official. According to initial reports, American and Pakistani officials said they could not definitively confirm Mansour’s death. Later, Afghan officials said the Taliban leader had been killed.
Mansour had assumed leadership of the Afghan Taliban after reports surfaced that Mullah Omar, the longtime head of the militant group, had died. In recent months the Taliban insurgency grew intensely fierce with a string of attacks in Kabul and several other areas. The Taliban who ruled Afghanistan at the time of 9/11 attacks were toppled after US invasion in October 2001 but in recent years they have launched attacks in capital Kabul and many other areas while the Afghan security forces struggle to curb their insurgency.
In his remarks to the media, Kerry also said Mansour posed a threat to the US personnel in Afghanistan.
“Mansour posed a continuing imminent threat to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, to Afghan civilians, Afghan Security Forces, and Resolute Support coalition members across the country. And this action sends a clear message to the world that we will continue to stand with our Afghan partners as they work to build a more stable, united, secure, and prosperous Afghanistan,” he said in Burma.
The chief American diplomat said the United States has long maintained that an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned reconciliation process is the surest way to achieve peace, and peace is what we want.”
A quartet comprising the United States, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan has taken part in several rounds of Afghan reconciliation talks that seek to bring reconcilable Taliban to peace talks to end the lingering conflict in Afghanistan.
But Kerry said the new Afghan Taliban leader was a threat to the peace process.
“Mansour was a threat to that effort and to bringing an end to the violence and the suffering that the people of Afghanistan have endured for so many years now. He also was directly opposed to peace negotiations and to the reconciliation process. It is time for Afghans to stop fighting and to start building a real future together.”
Both Islamabad and Kabul were notified of the airstrike.
“I’m not going to get into further details about the timing, the tick-tocks. I will say to you that this morning, I know that (US commander in Afghanistan) General Nicholson talked directly to (Army Chief) General Raheel Sharif and I talked directly to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And it is important for people to understand that Mullah Mansour, as I said a moment ago, has been actively involved in planning attacks in Kabul, across Afghanistan, presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and to the coalition forces that are there. And this is a decision that was made by the President of the United States and it’s one that I wholeheartedly, completely support, and it was done appropriately and in conversation with both parties.”
Kerry noted the US is prepared to take part in talks but will respond if people resort to violence and stand in the way of peace.
“So hopefully this is a message to people that if nobody wants to talk about peace, we’re prepared to continue to do what we need to do to protect our country and to protect the journey of Afghans towards their full sovereignty and independence as a democratic country. The president of Afghanistan has made it clear that he’s prepared to have talks. We are prepared to have talks. But if people want to stand in the way of peace, continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond, and I think we responded appropriately.”
