Kabul
Afghanistan on Sunday said Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US bombing raid, the first confirmation from regional officials of his death, which marks a potential blow to the resurgent militant movement.
Senior Afghan Taliban sources also confirmed the death of their chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike in Pakistan, adding that a council is underway to decide his successor.
"I can say with good authority that Mullah Mansour is no more," a senior Taliban source told AFP.
The elimination of Mansour, who had consolidated power following a bitter Taliban leadership struggle over the past year, could also spark new succession battles within the fractious movement.
US officials maintained they had no definitive proof of his death in multiple drone strikes, authorised by President Barack Obama, in the remote Pakistani town of Ahmad Wal in Balochistan province.
But both Afghanistan's main spy agency, and the country's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, asserted that Mansour had been killed in the attack.
"Mansour was being closely monitored for a while... until he was targeted along with other fighters aboard a vehicle," Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said in a statement.
The deaths of Taliban leaders have often been falsely reported. Mansour himself was rumoured to have been killed last December.
Pakistan on Sunday lambasted the US over the drone attack, calling it a violation of its sovereignty and asserting that information about it was shared with its prime minister and army chief only after the raid.
Pakistani security officials said they recovered two bodies charred beyond recognition from a smouldering vehicle at the scene of the attack.
The passenger, who is suspected of being Mansour, was said to be returning from Iran and was using a Pakistani passport with the name Muhammad Wali.
The driver -- who also died in Saturday's attack -- was a civilian who worked for a local rental company, according to the officials, contradicting the US account that he was a "second combatant".
Mansour was formally appointed head of the Taliban in July last year following the revelation that the group's founder Mullah Omar had been dead for two years.
The group saw a resurgence under the firebrand supremo with striking military victories, helping to cement his authority by burnishing his credentials as a commander.
