Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has been recognized as the new leader of the Taliban. In a statement published on the group's website, Mullah Omar's brother and his eldest son declared their support for Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who had managed the organization after the death of the leader, which occurred in the 2013.
"Abdul Manan Mullah, brother of Omar and the eldest son of the latter, Maulavi Mohammad Yaqoub, declared loyalty to the new leader during a meeting attended by numerous leaders."
The estimated number of Taliban guerrillas is around 35 thousand: essentially a regional coalition, largely held together by mullah Omar. The Quetta Shura decreed Mansoor as the new "emir" the 30 last July, but a powerful Taliban faction did not recognize this authority, siding with Omar's eldest son, 26enne Mohammad Yaqoub Mullah. Internal tensions between the Taliban led to the suspension of peace talks already started but interrupted after the announcement of Omar's death. Mansoor himself has disavowed the talks with the Afghan government (although he has participated in some cognitive meetings), questioning every type of preliminary agreement reached. It should be emphasized that the al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, recently confirmed the loyalty of the terrorist group in Mansoor.
It has long been known that the Taliban are facing a delicate moment. Tayeb Agha, a high-profile figure of the movement, resigned as head of the Taliban political office in Qatar after criticizing the way Mansoor was chosen. Abdul Manan Niazi Mullah, a member of the main council that would support Mansoor's appointment, told Al Jazeera that he had not been consulted in the final vote. A few days later, Maulvi Haibatullah Noorzai would have escaped an attack in the Pakistani Baluchistan province. According to the Afghan Pajhwok News, Noorzai and the head of the board of Taliban leaders, Maulvi Abdul Kabir, were on a mission to try to collect support for Mansoor.
Who is the new leader of the Taliban
Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor should have been born in the village of Kariz, in the Maiwand district, in the province of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. It should have been born between the 1960 and the 1965. Of Pashtun ethnicity, belongs to the Ishaqzai tribe, of the Durrani tribal confederation. During the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Mansoor joined the paramilitary group founded by Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, leader of the Harakat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami. It was then that he met one of the leading commanders of the movement, Mohammad Omar. After the war he moved and Quetta resumed his religious education. Arrived in Peshawar, he completed his studies at the madrasa of Darul Uloom Haqqania, the same as Omar, until 1995. Mansoor would have joined the Taliban to fight the warlords. Appointed head of security at Kandahar airport, following precise instructions from Mohammed Omar, he became civil aviation minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the 1996 to the 2001.
In 2001, Afghan President Hamid Karzai granted him an amnesty. The USA, which knew the profile of Mansoor and the other Taliban commanders well, did not believe me in their conversion and started a series of raids aimed at their capture or elimination. Having fled to Pakistan, he helped shape the new Taliban. In 2006, the Pentagon listed Akhtar Masoor among the 23 leading figures in the movement. Now it is the main one.
