Afghan Taliban leader seriously injured

“Secondly his security is not weak to allow such an incident”, he told the BBC Afghan service.

The gunfire, which sources told the BBC seemed to be spontaneous and not an organized attack, comes two years after the death of Taliban founder Mullah Omar.

“Mansur was seriously injured and taken to hospital”, Sultan Faizi, a spokesman for Afghan First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, told RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan on December 2.

The shootout apparently occurred on Tuesday at the home of Abdullah Sarhadi, a commander in Mansour’s group and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee.

“Both leaders agreed to work with all those who would enter such a process as legitimate political actors, and act, alongside the Afghan government, against those who refuse to take the path of peace”.

“Akhtar Mansour is among the injured but the extent of his injuries is not clear”, he said.

What the latest episode may mean for the Afghan peace process remains uncertain for now.

Some reports claimed the shooting was fatal, but these were last night unconfirmed.

It remains unclear whether Mansour survived the gunfight, which exposes dissension within Taliban top ranks and threatens to derail a renewed regional push to jump-start peace talks.

The statement continues bu stating that the “enemy merely wants to draw attention away from their failures with such fabricated rumors”.

Several Pakistani intelligence officials also denied that Mansour was shot.

He is seriously injured.

The rifts increase the risk of internecine clashes within the Taliban, which has lately seen a new resurgence under Mansour even as it confronts the rise of the rival Islamic State group in Afghanistan.

“This is not a small news that one can hide”, said one government official in Quetta, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could freely express his views on the matter.

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan had no immediate comment about the allegations.

Afghan officials said Mansoor was injured during a meeting of the Afghan Taliban in Kuchlak area, some 25 km east of Quetta, the Balochistan provincial capital, on Wednesday.

But the talks stalled soon after Omar’s death was confirmed. Omar had actually died two years earlier. Last month, the fighting in Zabul led a dissident commander in Farah province named Mullah Rasool to declare himself head of the group, in an unprecedented challenge to the central leadership.