KABUL // The killing of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone strike was greeted by Afghanistan’s political leadership on Sunday as a sign of hope for an end to the war.
In a rare show of unity, president Ashraf Ghani and chief executive Abdullah Abdullah welcomed the news of Mullah Akhtar’s death as the removal of a man widely regarded as an obstacle to peace within the militant group.
Mullah Akhtar, believed to be in his fifties, was killed at the weekend when a US drone fired on his vehicle in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan. He had emerged as the successor to Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose death in 2013 was revealed only last summer.
Mullah Akhtar “engaged in deception, concealment of facts, drug-smuggling and terrorism while intimidating, maiming and killing innocent Afghans”, Mr Ghani said. “A new opportunity presents itself to those Taliban who are willing to end war and bloodshed.”
Mullah Akhtar was “the main figure preventing the Taliban joining the peace process”, Mr Abdullah said. “From the day he took over the Taliban following the death of Mullah Omar, he intensified violence against ordinary citizens, especially in Afghanistan.”
US secretary of state John Kerry hailed the news of Mullah Akhtar’s death even before it was confirmed – an indication of how much Washington has wearied of the Taliban’s 15-year war with Kabul.
“Peace is what we want. Mansour was a threat to that effort,” Mr Kerry said. “He also was directly opposed to peace negotiations and to the reconciliation process. It is time for Afghans to stop fighting and to start building a real future together.”
Mullah Akhtar’s death clears the way for a succession battle, the second in less than a year, that will largely determine the direction for both the Taliban and the beleaguered Afghan peace process.
The dead man’s accession to the leadership was shrouded in controversy and accusations from many of his own senior commanders. That internal bitterness stemmed from the revelation last summer of Mullah Omar’s death, which Mullah Akhtar and his clique seem to have hidden not only from the outside world but from other senior Taliban commanders.
Mullah Akhtar’s subsequent formal coronation as Taliban leader prompted open revolt inside the group for several months, with members of Mullah Omar’s family rebelling and Taliban ground forces splitting into factional warfare.
But Mullah Akhtar patiently mended the rift, appointing as his deputy Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the powerful semi-independent Al Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani network faction. Haqqani helped bring Mullah Omar’s brother and son back into the fold in exchange for senior leadership positions.
While he played peacemaker inside the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar pursued an aggressive line with the Kabul government, shunning all overtures for peace and launching a series of bold attacks.
In September 2015, Taliban fighters surprised Afghan security forces and overran the northern city of Kunduz – the first time since their regime was overthrown in the 2001 US invasion that they had captured a provincial capital.
They held the city for four days before retreating in the face of a coordinated US-backed government assault, but the end result was an enduring embarrassment for Mr Ghani’s government. In the aftermath, Mullah Akhtar boasted about the prowess of his men and promised that the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul was only a matter of time.
His death inside Pakistan could further damage the already deeply suspicious relationship between Kabul and Islamabad.
Afghan and US officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency of keeping the Taliban leadership safe in cities across the porous and border.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Sunday repeated its protest over drone attacks on its territory. It also repeated Pakistan’s preference to settle the protracted war in Afghanistan through talks, and called on the Taliban to renounce violence in favour of negotiations.
Mr Ghani’s government initially embraced Pakistan’s role as a liaison to the Taliban and engaged in four-nation meetings with Pakistan, China and the US seeking to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. But at the most recent quartet meeting, Kabul declined to send a high-level delegation and was represented only by the ambassador to Pakistan.
Political analyst Haroun Mir said Mullah Akhtar’s apparent confidence in moving around Baluchistan in an unarmoured car with no security precautions shows “the Taliban are active and move freely with the support of the Pakistani authorities”.
Mullah Akhtar’s death could open a new chapter in Kabul’s quest for enduring peace with the Taliban, Mr Mir said. The time had come for “the Afghan government to get some benefit out of this, in bringing the Taliban into the peace process”.
Whether the Taliban will be open to those fresh overtures depends on who succeeds Mullah Akhtar. Mullah Mohammad Yaqub, the son of Mullah Omar, is popular, charismatic and believed by some officials to favour participation in peace talks. He controls the Taliban’s military commissions in 15 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Haqqani is another candidate. His network has deep pockets and is responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, including one in Kabul on April 19 that killed 64 people and injured more than 300.
* Associated Press