Taliban leader killed

A former Taliban minister has said leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor was killed during a shootout between militants in Quetta though the outlawed group rejected the claim as fabricated, Hindustan Times reported.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the minister of information and culture under the erstwhile Taliban regime, told a foreign media outlet that Mansoor succumbed to his injuries while being taken to hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, the Pajhwok Afghan News service reported.

The Afghan first vice president’s spokesman, Sultan Faizi, told the media that Mansoor had been seriously injured during the clash and had possibly succumbed to his injuries.

Faizi said senior Taliban official Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi and five others were also killed in the gun battle that took place in Kachlak area of Quetta two days ago.

Sources: MENA