ISIL offers higher salaries to fighters from Afghan taliban – US commander

A prime Taliban official introduced his resignation on Tuesday amid a rising management wrestle within the Afghan rebel motion after information of the dying of chief Mullah Mohammad Omar final week.

If the first public comments from the Afghan Taliban’s newly appointed leader are anything to go by, Akhtar Mohammad Mansour recognises how fractured the militant movement has become and that humility and consensus may be his best way forward.

Since Mansour’s appointment was announced by the Taliban leadership council based in Quetta, Pakistan, it has been denounced by several top members of the group, including Omar’s brother, who has called for an assembly to choose the leader. The statement added Haqqani said followers should not be deceived by enemy propaganda.

Agha criticized the group for keeping the death of its long-time leader, Mullah Omar, a “secret for two years“, calling it a “historical mistake”.

“In order to live with a clear conscience and abide by the principles of Mullah Omar, I decided that my work as head of the political office has ended”, Agha said in the statement published on a website regularly used by the Doha office and confirmed by a Taliban source.

The Taliban continued to release official statements in the name of Omar, who had not been seen in public since the Taliban were toppled from power in 2001, as recently as last month.

Agha said the “appointment of every leader which has taken place outside the country has brought very bad repercussions for the oppressed Afghan nation”. People (in the Taliban) are going to say: “Hey, why am I fighting?”

The Taliban leadership has been dealing with a crisis that manifested when Afghan authorities and the Taliban itself confirmed that Mullah Omar had been dead since April 2013.

The power struggle has cast a pall over the fragile peace process aimed at ending Afghanistan’s long war, with the Taliban distancing themselves from the second round of talks scheduled last Friday but cancelled after Omar’s death.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged uncertainty forward, together with for Mansour, noting: “I am unsure he is been universally accepted because the chief of the Taliban”.

Underscoring the deepening internal divisions, Tayeb Agha stepped down on Monday as head of the Taliban’s political office, set up in Qatar in 2013 to facilitate peace talks.

“Relations between Mullah Mansour and Tayyab Agha had never been friendly even when Mullah Omar was alive”, said another Taliban member, who is close to Agha. He was later appointed as deputy to Tayyeb Agha. “Peace process through Pakistan is not more than a game”, he remarked, saying he had resigned as head of the Taliban’s political office and would not share any news from there.

The succession dispute has raised concerns that the Taliban could splinter, complicating any peace efforts, or that powerful field commanders could defect to the Islamic State group, which has a small but growing presence in Afghanistan.