US Airstrike May Have Killed Taliban Leader Mullah Mansour

The Pentagon has announced that the US has conducted an airstrike targeting Taliban leader Mullah Mansour, the AP reports. One American official says the U.S. believes Mansour was killed in a drone strike authorized by President Barack Obama. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the attack occurred in a remote region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He said the US was still studying the results of the attack, leaving Mansour's fate unclear.

But a US official who wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the operation said Mansour and a second male combatant accompanying him in a vehicle were likely killed. The official said the attack was carried out by unmanned aircraft operated by US Special Operations Forces. The official said the operation occurred southwest of the town of Ahmad Wal. (More Taliban stories.)