KABUL’s Balochistan province.
A statement issued by the National Directorate of Security or NDS said Mansour was killed in the airstrike that struck his vehicle on the main road in Dalbandi area of Balochistan around 3:45pm Saturday.
Mansour had been under close surveillance for a while until his vehicle was targeted and destroyed, the statement said.
The US Department of Defense announced late on Saturday that Mansour had been targeted in a drone strike in a Pakistan-Afghanistan border area and was likely killed.
A statement from the Department of Defense said the US president personally authorised the airstrike.
Mansour rose to the Taliban leadership after its founding leader Mullah Omar’s death was announced last summer. Mansour concealed the death of Omar, who had been dead in 2013, for two years.
The US said Mansour had been actively involved in planning attacks against facilities in Kabul and across Afghanistan and presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and security forces.
However, the Taliban have not yet confirmed or denied the killing of Mansour in the US drone strike, the first that targeted a senior Taliban leader on a settled area of Pakistan. The US has been targeting militants in tribal areas of Pakistan.
mds/ma
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