Taliban’s feared Haqqani network leader dead

Said to be in his mid-80s, Haqqani fought against the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a commander of the Hizb-e-Islami Yunus Khalis group but is more noted for the role his Haqqani network faction of the Taliban played in attacking U.S.-led foreign forces after they invaded Afghanistan in 2001.

In the statement, Mullah Omar’s family praised his dedication to jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led coalition and said it was the “duty of all Muslims” to follow his example by establishing Sharia law in Afghanistan.

If he does that would be good news for Pakistan which enjoys considerable leverage and influence with Mansoor and his two newly-appointed deputies, including head of the so-called Haqqani Network, Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani, someone it sees it can nudge to continue to talk peace with Afghanistan.

Afghan officials met Taliban cadres this month in Murree, a holiday town in the hills north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, for their first face-to-face talks aimed at ending the bloody insurgency.

Source familiar with the development told PTI that Mullah Akhtar was the de facto chief of the Taliban and was leading the group since death of Mullah Omar in April 2013.

“His selection will only widen the rift within the Taliban”.

Peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban militants have also been put on hold in the wake of Omar’s death.

The few pictures believed to be of him show a thickset man with the dark beard and turban that are virtually the uniform for senior Taliban cadres.

If the Afghan government is correct that Omar had died in a hospital in the Pakistani city of Karachi more than a year earlier, Zawahiri made that pledge to a dead man. That would suggest “that Zawahiri was either ignorant or duplicitous, neither of which will endear him to his followers”, said intelligence consultancy The Soufan Group, in a recent analysis.

They also provide an opening to rival Islamic State (IS), the Middle East-based extremist movement that has attracted renegade Taliban commanders in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

And Taliban insiders say that by sending a three-member delegation to meet Afghan officials in the Pakistani resort of Murree earlier in July, Mansour sparked new criticism. Mullah Mansour’s statements appear to have “aroused the suspicion” of Mullah Omar’s son Mullah Yaqoub and his brother Mullah Abdul Manan.

The Taliban warned IS recently against expanding in the region, but this has not stopped some fighters, inspired by the group’s success, defecting to swear allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi instead of the invisible Mullah Omar.

While the future of the peace process, which is a priority for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, is uncertain, the ministry added that “Afghanistan believes that in the current situation, peace negotiations are (more) possible than any time before”.

Mansour will be only the second leader the Taliban have had, because Omar, an elusive figure rarely seen in public, founded the ultra-conservative Islamist movement in the 1990s.

The death of Omar was also announced by Afghan government and Taliban admitted it after initial denial.

The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Afghan government since 2001, when the United States led an invasion to topple its extremist regime.