The Afghan Taliban Has Elected a New Leader After Mullah Omar’s Death

He allied himself to the Taliban after they took power in Kabul in 1996, serving as a cabinet minister under the militia’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The Taliban confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and appointed his successor Thursday.

Mansour, who was named the new Amir-ul-Momineen — “commander of the faithful” — faces staunch internal resistance from some members of the Taliban’s ruling council, the Quetta Shura, who accuse Pakistan of hijacking the movement.

The Taliban also announced two new deputy leaders, Mawlawi Akhundzada, who’d headed the group’s courts, and Sirajuddin Haqqani.

Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who has taken over as the new Taliban emir, was educated at the notorious Haqqaniah seminary, which is located about an hour’s drive from the federal capital and the military GHQ.

The Taliban had confirmed Mullah Omar’s death on Thursday.

Moreover his longstanding ties to Pakistan, viewed by many Taliban as a capricious, unreliable ally motivated exclusively by self-interest, has led some to suspect him of being little more than an ISI puppet.

“There has always been Mullah Omar”.

The power transition raises hopes that Mansour’s leadership will pave the way for an end to almost 14 years of fighting as the US-backed Afghan government struggles to contain the Taliban’s intensifying summer offensive.

The Afghan government first announced on Wednesday that Mullah Omar is dead and that he in fact died over two years ago in a hospital in Pakistan. It was widely believed that Mullah Omar fled over the border to Pakistan, where he lived under Pakistani protection as he led the insurgency for a number of years.

The news of Mullah Omar’s death sparked a leadership contest that many feared could create disunity within the group, potentially affecting the outcome of recently opened peace talks. Afghan officials also said they received no help from Pakistan, which had long sheltered and aided the Taliban.

Mansoor is considered close to the Pakistani authorities and his election could further divide an already-fractured Taliban as he is believed to have links to opposing councils within the movement.

Mullah Mansoor was a senior figure in the Taliban and had been acting as Mullah Omar’s deputy for the past three years.

The White House on Friday urged the Taliban “to heed President Ghani’s call for reconciliation and make genuine peace with the Afghan government“. Indeed, it is highly plausible that Pakistan conceded Mullah Omar’s death only because it could not deliver him or his incontrovertible message for the talks when Afghan government put pressure on Pakistan for it.

“Mullah Mansour is one of the founders of the Taliban movement and he is a moderate, pro-peace, pro-talks person”, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a former Taliban official and a member of the Afghan High Peace Council, told AFP.

He said that during the last meeting with Afghan Taliban, the latter had accepted Afghanistan as a party in negotiations. “In battles with local security forces, the Taliban lost 20 fighters, including their local commander”, he said.