HANOI, Vietnam—President Barack Obama said Monday that the violent death of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour by a U.S. airstrike should send a “clear signal” to anti-American extremists that “we’re going to protect our people.”
Obama also said Mansour’s death was an “important milestone” in the yearslong effort to bring peace to Afghanistan.
“It has been confirmed that he is dead,” Obama said Monday during his first visit to Vietnam. “He is an individual who, as head of the Taliban, was specifically targeting U.S. personnel and troops inside of Afghanistan” who Obama sent there to help counter terrorism and help train Afghan troops.
Mansour was killed when a U.S. drone fired on his vehicle in the southwestern Pakistan province of Baluchistan, though it was unclear whether the airstrike took place on Friday or Saturday. He had emerged as the successor to Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose 2013 death was only revealed last year.
Obama authorized the attack and was briefed before and after it was carried out, aides said.
Speaking at a news conference following his meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Obama said the fatal attack on Mansour did not represent a change in U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, which is to help train Afghan forces. Obama ended the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014.
“We are not re-entering the day-to-day combat operations that are currently being conducted by Afghan security forces,” Obama said. “Our job is to help Afghanistan secure its own country, not to have our men and women in uniform engage in that fight for them.”
