U.S. on Taliban drone strike: "operational security trumps need to inform other governments"

Record ID: 102259

  • Title: U.S. on Taliban drone strike: "operational security trumps need to inform other governments"
  • Date: 24th May 2016
  • Summary: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (MAY 24, 2016) (STATE TV) U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESMAN MARK TONER ENTERING BRIEFING ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT DEPUTY SPOKESMAN MARK TONER SAYING: "Operational security trumps the need to inform other governments."
  • Embargoed: 8th June 2016 20:37
  • Keywords: Pakistan U.S. drone Taliban military Mark Toner State Department
  • Location: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES; UNKNOWN LOCATION NEAR PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER, PAKISTAN
  • City: WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES; UNKNOWN LOCATION NEAR PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER, PAKISTAN
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014J65NIF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The U.S. on Tuesday (May 24) defended a drone strike on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border over the weekend that Washington said killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
    "Operational security trumps the need to inform other governments," deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department Mark Toner told reporters.
    Pakistan's interior minister said on Tuesday he could not confirm that Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour had been killed in a U.S. drone strike, and described Washington's justification for the attack as "against international law".
    U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday (May 23) that Mansour had been killed in the drone strike, and the Pentagon said separately that Mansour was plotting attacks that posed "specific, imminent threats" to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
    Pakistan and the United States have been uneasy allies in the war against the Taliban and other Islamist militants in the region.
    Critics in Afghanistan and the United States accuse Pakistan of allowing the Afghan Taliban's leadership to take shelter on its territory, something that Islamabad has denied.
    "We have been very clear eyed and very clear in our interaction with Pakistan where we've believed that they need to do more to root out terrorists, as I said who find safe haven in some of their territory. And we're going to continue to do that," Toner said.
    The militant movement has made territorial gains and carried out a series of deadly attacks across Afghanistan since NATO forces officially wound down their combat mission at the end of 2014, undermining the Western-backed government in Kabul.
  • Copyright Holder: STATE DEPARTMENT TV
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