Taliban chief Mullah Mansour not killed in Pakistan airstrike

Islamabad/Washington, May 22 (IANS) Pakistani media reports on Sunday said a US airstrike in Balochistan province killed a taxi driver and a passenger but not Taliban chied Mullah Mansour.

CNN earlier on Sunday reported citing a US official that Mansour was was killed when the strike occurred in a remote area of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, southwest of the town of Ahmad Wal.

The official said Mansour was the target of the strike, adding that a second adult male combatant travelling with him in a vehicle was also likely killed.

According to report by Pakistani Urdu channel Samaa TV, the bodies of the two victims were brought to a hospital in Nushki, a district close to Ahmad Wal, where officials found their identity cards, Xinhua news agency reported.

The driver was identified as Muhammad Azam and the passenger as Wali Muhammad, a resident from Chaman, a town on the Pakistan-Afghan border, the report said.

Local Urdu TV Channel 92 News quoted an unidentified Taliban commander denying Mansour’s death.

Al Jazeera also reported that Taliban had denied the reports of Mansour’s death.

Born in the 1960s, Mullah Mansour was officially announced as the new top leader of Afghan Taliban on July 30, 2015, a day after the news about the death of former Afghan chief Mullah Omar was disclosed.