U.S. Drone Strike Kills Taliban Leader

Early on the morning of May 23rd, President Obama reaffirmed  earlier reports from the Afghan National Security Directorate (NDS) that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in an airstrike in Pakistan on Saturday, May 21st. Following the positive identification of Mansour by U.S. officials, President Obama stated that the death of Mansour was “an important milestone.”

Mansour’s rule highlighted many prominent successes not seen by the organization since 2001. Under Mansour, the Taliban primarily engaged in a combination of suicide bombings and militia led attacks throughout Afghanistan. His reign lasted from 2015 onward, with his most notable victory coming after taking control of the northern city of Kunduz for a brief four-day period.

Beyond his conquests around the countryside, Mansour’s notoriety as leader derived from his frequent and brutal attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, where he primarily coordinated suicide bombing in civilian dominated areas along with attacks on several government buildings.

The Taliban’s top leaders have yet to report the death of Mansour; however an alleged meeting took place on Sunday, May 22nd, to discuss the framework of the council’s leadership, possibly in the wake of Mansour’s death.

The most likely prospective successor to Mansour is Sirajuddin Haqqani. Haqqani has long been linked to the al-Qaeda Haqqani Network, a subgroup of the Taliban,  and currently has a five million dollar U.S. bounty on his head.

Haqqani is one of several men thought capable of succeeding Mansour’s role as leader of the Taliban. Among them is the son of the Taliban’s founder as well as its former leader, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob. Mansour officially replaced Yaqoob’s father, Mullah Omar, in 2015 after Omar was killed in a U.S.-led bombing in 2013.

Another contender for the position is former Guantanamo detainee, Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir. United States security officials are familiar with Zakir after he was freed from Guantanamo Bay’s detention center in 2007 and sent back to Afghanistan. There, he rejoined the Taliban as a strategic commander of southern Afghan operations and has since held a leadership position on the group’s elite council.

Regardless of who takes power of the terrorist group, Afghan and United States’ officials are hopeful this most recent killing will push the new Taliban leader closer toward a peace settlement. President Obama, speaking at a press conference in Vietnam, outlined how Mansour had “rejected efforts by Afghan government to seriously engage in peace talks,” and that “the Taliban should seize the opportunity to pursue the only real path for ending long conflict.”

Despite these diplomatic comments, experienced analysts of the Taliban like Long War Journal are skeptical of the prospects of a peace settlement, especially if Haqqani takes helm of the jihadist organization. What is certain though, is that the new Taliban leader will have significant impact on any prospective cease-fire as well as the future security of Afghanistan.