(Reuters/Taliban handout)A senior commander of the Afghan Taliban confirmed on Sunday that the extremist group's leader, Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, has been killed in a U.S. drone strike. Mullah Mansour formally led the Taliban after the death of the group's founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was announced last summer. Mullah Mohammad Yaqub, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, is popular, charismatic and believed to favor participation in a peace talks. Strike in Pakistan's Baluchistan provinceEarlier, the U.S. Department of Defence said a drone strike had targeted Mansour "in a remote area of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region." The drone strike targeted Mansour's vehicle which was carrying Mansour and one other person at the time, a U.S. military source said.

Source: CBC News May 22, 2016 04:03 UTC