President Obama confirmed the death of Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour early Monday morning, calling it an “important milestone” in ending the unrest in Afghanistan.
“Today marks an important milestone in our longstanding effort to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement from the White House. “With the death of Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, we have removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like al Qa’ida.”
Over the weekend, the Defense Department said it conducted a drone airstrike in Pakistan on Saturday targeting Mansour. While U.S. officials would not confirm if Mansour was killed over the weekend, Afghan and Taliban officials claimed the leader was dead. A spokesman from the Defense Department said in a statement that the results of the attack were still being assessed.
Secretary of State John Kerry said this weekend in Burma that 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.”
He added that the strike “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.”
Obama echoed his top diplomat, saying that while Mansour “rejected efforts by the Afghan government to engage in peace talks,” he urged the Taliban to now “seize the opportunity” to end its conflict with the Afghan government.
“As an enduring partner of the Afghan people, the United States will continue to help strengthen Afghan security forces and support [Afghan President Ashraf] Ghani and the National Unity Government in their efforts to forge the peace and progress that Afghans deserve,” Obama added. “We will continue taking action against extremist networks that target the United States. We will work on shared objectives with Pakistan, where terrorists that threaten all our nations must be denied safe haven. After so many years of conflict, today gives the people of Afghanistan and the region a chance at a different, better future.”
Obama cautioned that this weekend’s airstrike does not represent a shift in the U.S. approach in Afghanistan.
“We are not reentering the day-to-day combat operations that are currently being conducted by Afghan security forces,” he said Monday during a press conference in Vietnam. “Our job is to help Afghanistan secure its own country. Not to have our men and women in uniform engage in that fight for them.”
