Taliban supremo Mullah Mansoor is dead: Afghanistan officials confirm

Kabul: Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has died of injuries, Afghanistan officials confirmed on Friday. Mansoor was critically injured in a gunfight on Wednesday in an argument with commanders in the militant group, Xinhua quoted Afghanistan officials as saying. [caption id=“attachment_2376446” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. AP[/caption] The incident came as the group has been divided into two factions after Mansoor succeeded former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar as the hardliner group’s leader after Omar was confirmed dead in late July. Mullah Akhtar Mansoor had been wounded in firefight that broke out at a gathering of several Taliban figures in neighboring Pakistan the previous night. After reports emerged a few days ago of the leaders critical condition, the Taliban had promptly denied the claims, calling it propaganda by the government in Afghanistan. The taliban’s official website said: “Some media outlets published reports today from the mouths of Kabul intelligence circles that the leader of Islamic Emirate (Mullah Akhtar Mansoor) was attacked and wounded in Kuchlak region of Quetta city yesterday. We categorically reject this fabricated claim of the enemy intelligence apparatus… (Mansoor) has no presence in the stated area and neither has a security incident occurred there. The enemy falsely claimed that the incident took place in the home of a commander named Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi, despite the fact that his home is not even based in the Kuchlak region.” with inputs from IANS