Kabul, May 22 (IANS) The Afghanistan government has started assessing the reported killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor by US military drone strike in Pakistan, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said on Sunday.
Abdullah said the US officials informed the Afghan government on Saturday night about the likely death of Mansoor in the attack in Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Ahmad Wal in Balochistan province.
"Attack is part of the US campaign against terrorists outside Afghanistan and Mansoor likely has been killed in the attack," Abdullah asserted.
Reports on physical elimination of Mansoor if proved true would be a major blow to the Taliban, Xinhua news agency quoted Abdullah as saying.
Taliban militants, who had kept the death of their former leader Mullah Omar secret for more than two years, are yet to comment on Mansoor's fate.
Pakistan's Urdu TV channel Samaa, meanwhile, reported the US drone strike on Saturday killed a taxi driver and a passenger but not Afghan Taliban top leader Mullah Mansoor.
Their bodies were brought to a hospital in Nushki, a district close to Ahmad Wal.
According to the identity cards collected from the bodies, the driver's name is Muhammad Azam and the passenger's name is Wali Muhammad, a resident of Chaman, a town on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
