Pakistan denounces U.S. strike on Taliban chief

The Pakistani government on Sunday denounced a U.S. drone strike that killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, saying the attack violated Pakistan's sovereignty and stressing that peace can be attained only through negotiation.

Afghan and Taliban leaders confirmed Sunday that Mansoor was killed in the strike the previous day near the Afghan border.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah tweeted that Mansoor was killed Saturday in a drone strike in Quetta, Pakistan. "His car was attacked in Dahl Bandin," Abdullah said in the tweet.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, at a news conference in Myanmar, declined to confirm Mansoor's death, but he acknowledged that a U.S. strike had targeted him. Kerry said President Obama made the decision. Kerry also said he discussed the strike with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif early Sunday.

"It is important for people to understand that Mullah Mansoor has been actively involved in planning attacks in Kabul, across Afghanistan, presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and to the coalition forces that are there," Kerry said. "If people want to stand in the way of peace, continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond, and I think we responded appropriately."

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Taliban leader Mansoor killed by U.S. drone

The Pakistan Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Pakistani officials were notified after the drone strike took place. An investigation into the attack was underway, the ministry said.

The statement said such attacks are a violation of its sovereignty, "an issue which has been raised with the United States in the past as well." Pakistan issued a similar complaint when U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid on the al-Qaeda leader's compound in in Abbottabad in 2011.

The ministry noted that representatives from Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and China agreed as recently as last week that "a politically negotiated settlement was the only viable option for lasting peace in Afghanistan and called upon the Taliban to give up violence and join peace talks."

Abdullah and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, whose political clashes have often brought government to a standstill, hailed the attack and described Mansoor as an obstacle to those peace talks.

Ghani said Mansoor "obstructed development and progress in Afghanistan and obstinately insisted on continuing the war." He said Mansoor was a brutal killer whose death presents a "new opportunity" for Taliban members who want to end the war.

As recently as last month, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an assault that killed 64 people and injured hundreds more in Kabul. A suicide bomber detonated a truck laden with explosives near a government intelligence facility during the morning rush hour as insurgents stormed the compound and opened fire.

Mansoor's rise to power is shrouded in mystery. Mullah Mohammad Omar, Mansoor's predecessor, had ruled Afghanistan for five years until being driven from power following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Omar, who had hosted bin Laden's al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the years leading up to the attacks, continued to lead the militant group until his death in 2013.

Neither Mansoor nor the Taliban formally acknowledged Omar's death last year, after Mansoor had taken firm control of the fractured leadership.

"We should keep our unity, we must be united, our enemy will be happy in our separation," Mansoor purportedly said in an audio message at the time of his election. "This is a big responsibility for us. This is not the work of one, two or three people. This is all our responsibility to carry on jihad until we establish the Islamic state."

In July, Sirajuddin Haqqani was named the Taliban's new deputy leader. It was not immediately clear who will succeed Mansoor.

Haqqani was the operational head of the militant Haqqani Network that operates in Afghanistan and has been responsible for attacks on foreign and Afghan targets. The State Department named the Haqqani Network a terrorist organization in 2012. The U.S. has a $10 million bounty on Haqqani's head.

The Haqqani Network had worked closely with the Taliban but until the leadership change last year, it had maintained a separate leadership structure.

The U.S. military has handed off primary responsibility for security in Afghanistan to the Afghan government, although thousands of U.S. forces remain there in mostly advisory and support roles.

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook