Urgent: Afghan Gov’t Confirms Death of Taliban Leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor

“Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has died of his injuries,” Sultan Faizy, spokesman for Afghan first Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum wrote on his twitter account.

Akhtar Mansoor was badly injured in Taliban infighting in Quetta city of Pakistan on Tuesday and finally died of his injuries.

The news comes as Taliban has not officially confirmed Mullah Akhtar Mansoor’s death.

Mullah Akhtar Mansoor’s death comes just three days after Mullah Mansour Dadullah’s dead body was found in the house of one of his followers.

Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and Mullah Mansour Dadullah replaced former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar who was confirmed dead late in July.

Fierce clashes were ongoing between two rival Taliban groups in Southern Afghanistan. Skirmishes have been taking place in Southern Zabul province between fighters loyal to the widely-recognized Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and followers of Mansour Dadullah, a deputy of splinter-group leader Mohamed Rasool who announced his own faction in November.

Media reports had said on November 12 that Dadullah had been killed in clashes in Southern Afghanistan.

Tolo News had quoted Afghan officials as saying that “Mullah Mansour Dadullah – deputy leader of the new breakaway Taliban group – was killed in clashes in Zabul”.

Dadullah, the brother of a top Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah Akhund, had rejected Akhtar Mansour as the new leader and even claimed that Mullah Omar had not died of natural causes but was killed.

The mainstream Taliban under Mullah Akhtar Mansour was intimate with Pakistan and its military intelligence ISI.

Dadullah’s faction pledged loyalty to the ISIL terrorist group in November.