Who Will Replace Mullah Mansoor? Afghan Taliban Meets to Decide

Reports suggest based purely on matters of hierarchy, Haqqani would be the favourite to succeed Mansoor.

Volunteers stand near the wreckage of the destroyed vehicle, in which Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansoor was allegedly traveling in the Ahmed Wal area in Baluchistan province of Pakistan, near Afghanistan border. (Photo: AP)

The Afghan Taliban’s leadership council met on Sunday to start considering succession after a US drone strike in Pakistan targeted its commander, two Taliban sources told Reuters, in the strongest sign yet the insurgency had accepted he was dead.

The strike that targeted and killed Mullah Akhtar Mansoor on Saturday was perhaps the most high-profile US incursion into Pakistan since the 2011 raid to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. This sparked a protest by Islamabad that its sovereignty had been violated and could also trigger a succession battle within a Taliban insurgency.

A file photo of Mullah Mansoor. (Photo: AP)

A senior commander of the Afghan Taliban confirmed on Sunday that the extremist group’s leader, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansoor, has been killed in a US drone strike. US President Barack Obama confirmed the same on Monday.

Taliban sources said that Sunday’s meeting of the Rahbari Shura, or leadership council, included discussion of possible successors, including guerrilla commander Sirajuddin Haqqani.

Haqqani, who has a $5 million US bounty on his head, would likely prove an even more implacable foe of Afghan government forces and their US allies.

Haqqani is on FBI’s wanted list. (Photo: FBI)

Haqqani is widely seen by US and Afghan officials as the most dangerous warlord in the Taliban insurgency, responsible for the most bloody attacks, including one last month in Kabul in which 64 people were killed.

Based purely on matters of hierarchy, (Haqqani) would be the favourite to succeed Mansoor. 

<b>Michael Kugelman, Senior Associate, Woodrow Wilson Institute Think Tank</b>

The Taliban were also considering Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, a potential unifier because of his father’s name. Former Guantanamo detainee Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir and Mullah Sherin were also cited, the sources said.

A Pakistani police officer and paramedics stand beside two dead bodies reportedly killed in a US drone strike in the Ahmad Wal area in Baluchistan province, Pakistan, near the Afghan border, in Quetta, Pakistan. (Photo: AP)

Pakistan Protests, Afghanistan Considers Peace Talks

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that this drone strike was a violation of his country’s sovereignty. The country protested that the US government did not inform the PM before hand. A US official later acknowledged that Washington only notified Pakistan after the operation.

If people want to stand in the way of peace and continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond and I think we responded appropriately.&nbsp;

<b>John Kerry, US Secretary of State</b>

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani had said that the removal of Mansoor could open the door to talks and that Taliban members wanting the end to bloodshed should join peace efforts.

(Article published in an arrangement with Reuters. Edited for length.)