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Taliban Announce New Leader, and Pick 2 Deputies From Hard-Line Wing Taliban Announce New Leader, and Pick 2 Deputies From Hard-Line Wing
(about 9 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban leadership has announced the appointment of a new head, as well as two deputies drawn from the hard-line Haqqani wing, according to messages it posted on Friday on a website associated with the group. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Taliban leadership announced on Friday that the group’s longtime deputy, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, had been appointed its new supreme leader, and that his two deputies were drawn from its hard-line Haqqani wing, according to messages posted on a website associated with the group.
The move greatly elevated the standing of the extremist Haqqani wing, and it may in turn complicate efforts to resume peace talks, which were suspended after confirmation of the death of the Taliban’s former leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. The move greatly elevated the standing of the Haqqani network, which unlike the Taliban’s main command is listed by the United States as a terrorist organization. That may also complicate efforts to resume peace talks, which were suspended after confirmation of the death of the Taliban’s former leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.
The leadership announcement seemed to settle for the moment at least questions over the succession to Mullah Omar. The Taliban have now confirmed Mullah Omar’s death without saying when he died. Afghan government officials said on Wednesday that he died two years ago in a hospital in Pakistan. It also threatened a serious split within the Taliban, with Mullah Omar’s son, Mullah Yaqoub, at one point walking out of a meeting called to debate the appointment of Mullah Mansour as leader, according to Taliban officials with knowledge of the process. Mullah Yaqoub, who had sought the leadership himself, later publicly criticized the choice.
Citing the leadership council of the Quetta Shura, the body that Mullah Omar headed as “emir” of the Taliban, the announcement on the website Shahamat, in English, Pashto and Dari, said that Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour had been chosen as emir. Taliban officials with knowledge of the deliberations by the group’s leadership council described several dramatic days of talks this week over choosing a successor, as it became clear to the insurgents that they would no longer be able to keep up the fiction that Mullah Omar was still alive. Notably, the decision was not delayed for deliberation by a larger council of Taliban members, which may hurt its legitimacy in the eyes of some.
The announcement also said the Taliban’s two “deputy heads” would be Maulavi Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s former chief justice, and Mullah Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the of the Haqqani network and the son of its founder. Maulavi Akhunzada is also close to the Haqqani network, according to former Taliban officials, and some describe him as a member of that group. Initially, the powerful Haqqani network faction was said to be supporting Mullah Yaqoub, as was Mullah Abdul Qayuum Zakir, the Taliban’s top military leader. The talks took on urgency as Afghan government officials announced on Wednesday that Mullah Omar died two years ago in a hospital in Pakistan. A day later the Taliban confirmed that he was dead, although without acknowledging when he died.
Appointing Haqqani deputies removed an important source of dissension over the leadership, as the Haqqani network initially had been said to favor making Mullah Omar’s son Yaqoub the new leader. If the new Taliban leadership remains in control, it will pose a dilemma for American policy makers, who have painstakingly tried to draw a sharp distinction between the mainstream Taliban, who were once in government, and the Haqqani faction.
The Haqqani network, a group based in Pakistan that had pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar, operates as a close ally of the Taliban and is responsible for many of the biggest attacks in eastern Afghanistan and in Kabul. It runs the most significant network of suicide bombers and has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States government. Now there would be little to distinguish the Taliban factions, with two powerful Haqqani figures sharing senior roles and the new leader, Mullah Mansour, apparently indebted to them for his position.
People close to the Quetta Shura, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and had earlier said that the succession had been in doubt, said on Friday that the appointment of Mullah Mansour and deputies acceptable to the Haqqani network had settled the issue and that the Taliban were now united behind the new leadership. The new leadership would also be likely to solidify the Pakistani military’s strong influence over the Taliban’s central command, as the Haqqanis have long enjoyed patronage and protection in Pakistan, and Mullah Mansour is also seen as being close to the Pakistani military and intelligence.
The Taliban statement said the new emir had been chosen in a meeting of the leadership council with “scholars, saints and dignitaries of the Islamic Emirate,” as it calls its organization. It did not say when the meeting took place, except that it was “after his passing away.” The Taliban confirmed Mullah Omar’s death only on Thursday. While the statement was dated Thursday, it was not made public until Friday. The formal announcement of the decision by the leadership council of the Quetta Shura, the Taliban’s governing body, was posted on the Taliban website, Shahamat, in English, Pashto and Dari on Friday. The announcement also said that the Taliban’s two “deputy heads” would be Maulavi Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s former judiciary chief and a Haqqani network member, and Mullah Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network and the son of its founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Mullah Mansour had officially been Mullah Omar’s deputy during the past two years, when the leader was apparently dead — though the Taliban denied that was the case. In an odd coincidence — if that’s what it was — reports began filtering out on Friday that Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was in his 70s and had long been ill, might have also died in secrecy last year. Reached for comment, a member of the Haqqani network in Pakistan said that Mr. Haqqani had died in December, but the report could not be more widely confirmed.
Mullah Mansour has been known as a proponent of engaging in peace talks, and the first face-to-face negotiations between the Taliban and the government took place on July 7 in Pakistan. A second session scheduled for Friday was canceled after news of Mullah Omar’s death became public. Jalaluddin Haqqani had directly pledged the loyalty of his group to Mullah Omar, but the network retained some autonomy. The group has been responsible for many of the most significant attacks in eastern Afghanistan and in Kabul, especially those targeting Americans.
The enhanced status of the Haqqani network may pose a problem for American officials, who have supported the peace talks but have had political difficulties engaging directly with Haqqani members. There have been reports that Haqqani representatives participated in the July 7 session. American and Chinese officials were present as observers. That has not made them opposed to talking peace with the United States. As the faction holding the American prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the Haqqanis were willing to cooperate in swapping him for Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay – although American officials insisted that they were not negotiating directly with the Haqqanis but going through other Taliban officials.
The Taliban statement referred to Mullah Mansour’s previous role as de facto leader of the insurgency, saying “he had been administering the Islamic Emirate since long before” Mullah Omar’s death. When the first round of official meetings between Taliban and Afghan government officials took place in Pakistan on July 7, one of the proposed Taliban negotiators was Yahya Haqqani, a brother-in-law of Sirajuddin Haqqani. American officials who were present as observers objected to Yahya, who has a $5 million American bounty for his capture on terrorism charges, and the Haqqanis dropped him from the delegation, according to Mohammad Asim, one of the Afghan delegates.
Maulavi Qalamudin, a member of the Afghan government’s High Peace Council and himself a former Taliban official, said that the new deputy, Maulavi Akhunzada, had been a member of the Haqqani network in recent years and was a longtime friend of the Haqqani network’s founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani. Taliban officials with knowledge of the talks on a successor to Mullah Omar, said that initially, Mullah Zakir, the Taliban military leader, had joined with the Haqqanis in backing Mullah Yaqoub to replace his father as leader.
Maulavi Qalamudin expressed doubt that the succession issue had been settled. “It is still not confirmed how many Taliban have voted to replace Mullah Omar,” he said. “There is still a possibility of disputes between them; we will have to wait and see if those disputes will be resolved or not.” Some Taliban officials saw that as a bid by Mullah Zakir to assume power through the younger Mullah Yaqoub, who is thought to be around 26. After Yaqoub and Zakir walked out to protest the selection of Mullah Mansour, the issue was pressing enough that the Taliban leadership discussed having a jirga, or a grand council meeting, to settle it and head off a schism.
However, a Taliban official said on Friday that Mullah Omar’s family members as well as prominent Taliban members and the leadership council of the shura had all backed Mullah Mansour and the new deputies. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect himself from arrest by the authorities. Within a day, however, the leadership council had made a deal to give the Haqqanis two posts as deputies, cementing Mullah Mansour as the new leader, the Taliban officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the group’s internal politics.
“There were small disagreements at the beginning, but all differences were settled through the mediation of white-bearded clerics and the blessing of the Haqqani network,” the Taliban official said. They soon persuaded Mullah Zakir to support the choice of Mullah Mansour, and were hopeful of doing the same with Mullah Yaqoub, one of the Taliban officials said. A statement was posted on the Taliban website in Mullah Zakir’s name late Friday, saying he had no conflict with Mullah Mansour.
“There is no longer any need for a 300-person jirga,” one of the officials said. “The family of Mullah Omar pledged its allegiance to Mansour.”
However, on Friday, The Associated Press quoted Mullah Yaqoub as saying, “I am against the decision to select Mullah Akhtar Mansour as leader.” He did not elaborate in the remarks quoted by the news agency.
Another Taliban official said that Mullah Omar’s brother, Abdul Mannan, had supported Mullah Mansour. “The leadership council got his support, but Yaqoub was not present,” the official said. “Today we have heard that Zakir has been convinced, and if he is convinced, Yaqoub will also be convinced.”
The Taliban statement said the new emir had been chosen in a meeting of the leadership council with “scholars, saints and dignitaries of the Islamic Emirate,” as it calls its organization. It did not say when the meeting took place, except that it was “after his passing away,” a reference to Mullah Omar. While the statement was dated Thursday, it was not made public until Friday.
Mullah Mansour had officially been the deputy leader of the Taliban for about five years — including the last two, when Mullah Omar is believed to have already been dead. He had also insisted to many lower-level commanders, despite their doubts, that Mullah Omar was still alive and he was acting on his behalf, raising the potential for hard feelings toward him.
Mullah Mansour has supported engaging in peace talks with the Afghan government, but his appointment did not come in time for a scheduled second round of peace talks, which were due to be held in Pakistan on Friday, July 31, but were canceled after Mullah Omar’s death became public this week.
The Taliban statement referred to Mullah Mansour’s previous role as de facto leader of the insurgency, saying “he had been practically administrating the Islamic Emirate” long before Mullah Omar’s death. Another statement posted on the same website recently expressed vague support for peace talks in general, while criticizing foreign interference in them.
Maulavi Qalamudin, a member of the Afghan government’s High Peace Council and himself a former Taliban official, expressed doubt that the succession issue had been settled. “It is still not confirmed how many Taliban have voted to replace Mullah Omar,” he said. “There is still a possibility of disputes between them; we will have to wait and see if those disputes will be resolved or not.”
However, a Taliban official said on Friday that the Quetta Shura’s leadership council was busy reaching prominent Taliban figures who were unable to attend the meeting that chose Mullah Mansour, to persuade them to support the choice. “Some Taliban members have complained they have not been consulted, but the leadership council and Mullah Mansour is now trying to make everyone happy and convinced,” the official said.