03-05-2024 10:45 PM Jerusalem Timing

Conflicting Reports over Taliban Chief Mullah Mansour’s Death

Conflicting Reports over Taliban Chief Mullah Mansour’s Death

Conflicting reports emerged on Friday over Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s death. While Afghanistan’s government is attempting to establish that Mansour is dead.

Afghanistan: Taliban chief Mullan MansourConflicting reports emerged on Friday over Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar Mansour's death. While Afghanistan's government is attempting to establish that Mansour is dead after reports emerged on Wednesday that he was severely injured in a shooting at a meeting of the group's senior commanders, a Taliban spokesman denied that Mansour was injured at all, saying the reports are "absolutely baseless".

Afghan officials say that the militant leader was seriously wounded when fighting broke out over strategic issues in the house of a senior Taliban leader called Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi near the Pakistani city of Quetta, near the southern Afghan border.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the incident ever took place and said Mansour was in Afghanistan.

"This is a rumor which is completely baseless. Akthar Mohammad Mansour is totally fine and nothing has happened to him," he said.

"This is the act of Afghan intelligence agencies. They spread these rumours about a clash between Taliban leaders. Nothing happened like this even in that area".

Pakistani officials said they are not aware of any such shooting incident.

However, a Taliban commander said five senior members of the Islamic movement had died on the spot and more than a dozen, including Mansour, had suffered serious bullet injuries. Mansour was being treated in a private hospital after being hit four times by bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle.

Earlier, Taliban had denied for two years that its former supreme leader Mullah Omar had died until Afghan officials revealed in July that Omar had died in a hospital in Pakistan in 2013.