Taliban leader killed in US drone strike

The Afghan government and a senior Taliban commander confirmed Sunday that the extremist group's leader, Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, has been killed in a U.S. drone strike. Ahead of the official confirmation of Mansour's death, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Myanmar Sunday, repeatedly referred to him in the past tense. Mansour, Mullah Omar's deputy, concealed the Taliban founder's death for more than two years, and ran the Taliban in his name until the death was revealed by the Afghan government. He controls the Taliban's military commissions in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and, like Rauf, recently reconciled with Mansour.