ISLAMABAD: Afghan Taliban confirmed on Sunday that their shadow governor for southern Helmand province Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund has been killed in a US strike, a serious setback for the insurgents. Akhund, whose real name was Mullah Muhammad Rahim, led the Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan for years and kept vast areas under control. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Akhund was killed in a US strike Saturday evening. He described the killing of Akhund as a big loss for the Taliban but said the incident will not weaken the resistance. Spokesman for Helmand Governor Omar Zwak said in reported comments that Akhund was killed along with Hafiz Rashid and Mulla Javed in Nawzad district in Helmand. He said Akhund was injured in a strike by the foreign forces and later succumbed to injuries in a hospital. Taliban say slain Akhund had turned the Taliban controlled areas into his private fiefdom and even resisted a move by the Taliban leaders to replace him. He had survived several attacks by the US and Afghan forces. A Taliban leader told Daily Times that Akhund was the close confidant of Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the Taliban supreme leader who was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016. He had served on several military positions and would also assign military commanders for others areas, he said. He was once arrested by the Afghan forces in Helmand. In October this year, a group of seven nations led by the US, designated Akhund and eight individuals associated with the Taliban on terrorist list for allegedly receiving support from Iran. The US had claimed that Iranian security officials promised to provide Akhund with anti-aircraft weapons. It had also accused Akhund of providing a large number of Taliban fighters to attack Afghan government forces. As of early 2018, Akhud was a Taliban leader responsible for coordinating and organizing Taliban operations in Afghanistan and had ties with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – Qods Force (IRGC), according to the US. In late 2007, Akhund oversaw the logistics of lethal aid transfers from the IRGC-QF to the Taliban and worked with Iran’s primary interlocutor with the Taliban to request supplies and coordinate lethal aid shipments, the US claimed. Meanwhile, the Taliban angrily reacted to remarks by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis that Washington wants to find a solution to the Afghan war but that does not involve troop withdrawal. “We are going to stand with the 41 nations, largest wartime coalition in history, who are still committed to this effort,” Mattis had reportedly said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. “If we leave, with 20-odd of the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world centred in that region, we know what will happen,” he said. “Our intelligence is very specific. We will be under attack.” “We want to remind US Secretary of Defense Mattis and other officials that the valiant Afghan Muslim nation is absolutely determined in forcing the occupying American forces out of Afghanistan,” the Taliban responded. “The political efforts of the Islamic Emirate for the withdrawal of US invaders should not be misconstrued as meaning that the American invaders will not be targeted militarily or that withdrawing and not withdrawing from Afghanistan are options chosen by American generals,” a Taliban statement said, adding that the Taliban have afforded US an opportunity to end the occupation of Afghanistan and resolve their concerns through political means and at a minimum cost. “But if the US officials and generals are of the belief that their occupying forces will remain in Afghanistan and that they will be left alone, then they should reassess their talks,” the statement said. “We will not tire or be disappointed in our jihad. The Mujahideen of Islamic Emirate shall continue their armed struggle and jihad until the withdrawal of the last invader,” it added. Published in Daily Times, December 3rd 2018.