HANOI/KABUL- A passport found at the site of a US drone attack targeting Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour bears the name of a Pakistani man named Wali Muhammad and carries a valid Iranian visa, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s spy agency said it was sure Mansour had been killed in the attack.
If it is confirmed Mansour had travelled to Iran before his death, it would raise fresh questions about the Taliban’s use of neighbouring territories. Iran’s predominantly Sunni Muslim Sistan-Baluchistan province borders both Pakistan and Afghanistan and has long been a hotbed of rebellion by Sunni Islamist militants against Iran’s Shiite authorities, as well as a point of entry for drugs being smuggled into Iran.
Saturday’s strike, which United States officials said was authorised by President Barack Obama and involved multiple drones, took place in Pakistan’s remote Baluchistan area near the Afghan border. Pakistan said the air strike had destroyed a car carrying two people, and that Sharif had not been told about it in advance.
The ministry said one of the charred bodies had been identified as a local taxi driver but the badly burnt second body had not. It added that the purported passport holder was believed to have returned to Pakistan from Iran on May 21, the day of the drone strike targeting Mansour. 
Photos of Muhammad’s passport seen by Reuters show a passing resemblance to some of the old photos available of Mansour.
“[Muhammad’s] passport was bearing a valid Iranian visa,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

 
Passport link Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour to Iran
Mohammad Qasim, brother of the dead taxi driver, told Reuters his brother had picked up his passenger from Taftan, a town on the Iranian-Pakistani border.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told reporters in London that Pakistan was unsure if Muhammad was “Mullah Mansour or someone else”. He called the attack “a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty”.
US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Washington only notified Pakistan after the strike.
It was unclear how long Mansour might have been inside Pakistan before the strike. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry disclosed that a passport found at the site of the strike, bearing a different name, carried a valid Iranian visa.
These pictures have been shared on Twitter and Facebook, confirming he came from Iran and was also carrying Pakistani documents. 
The Foreign Ministry added that the purported passport holder was believed to have returned to Pakistan from Iran on Saturday, the day of the drone strike targeting Mansour.
People on social media have already started to wonder what the Taliban leader was doing in Iran.
Obama confirms leader dead
U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Monday that the leader of the Afghan Taliban had been killed in an American air strike, an attack likely to trigger another leadership tussle in a militant movement already riven by internal divisions.
Obama, who started a three-day visit to Vietnam on Monday, reiterated support for the government in Kabul and Afghan security forces, and called on the Taliban to join peace talks.
The president authorized the drone strike that killed Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a remote region just within the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan on Saturday, and Afghan authorities have said the mission was successful.
But U.S. officials had held back from confirming that the Taliban leader had been killed in the attack until intelligence had been fully assessed.
Obama said in a statement that Mansour had rejected peace talks and had “continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces”.
“The Taliban should seize the opportunity to pursue the only real path for ending this long conflict – joining the Afghan government in a reconciliation process that leads to lasting peace and stability,” he said.
Although some individual Taliban members have been quoted in media reports saying that Mansour was killed, the movement’s leadership, keenly aware of the need to limit damaging splits, has not issued its own confirmation.
Source: Reuters, South China Morning Post, News Agencies, Monday, 23 May 2016