Early Monday, President Obama confirmed that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has been killed, calling the death "an important milestone in our longstanding effort to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan." Mansour was apparently killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan over the weekend, and Obama said in a statement that the U.S. has "removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people."
Obama is on his first day in Vietnam, and at a news conference with President Tran Dai Quang, he said the killing of Mansour — the first known drone strike in Pakistan's Balochistan area — does not mean that the U.S. is "re-entering the day-to-day combat operations that are currently being conducted by Afghanistan forces." Instead, he said, Mansour was "an individual who as head of the Taliban was specifically targeting U.S. personnel and troops inside of Afghanistan who are there as part of the mission I have set to maintain a counterterrorism platform and provide assistance." Pakistan has criticized the strike, but Obama said it sent the Taliban a message: "We're going to protect our people."
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