Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Afghan Taliban New Amir Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has quickly consolidated his position with very little opposition left against him

The Afghan Taliban say they have put aside disagreements and rallied around their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.

The announcement followed weeks of intensive efforts to unite the movement behind the man who succeeded Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Following the announcement of Omar's death in July, Mullah Mansour was quickly installed as the new Amir ul-Mumineen, Commander of the Faithful.

The new emir's main challengers were Mullah Omar's brother and eldest son - until now relatively unknown, who questioned the way he was appointed.

But both eventually pledged loyalty to Mullah Mansour.

"Mullah Yaqoub, the son and Mullah Manan, the brother of Mullah Omar, swore their allegiances to the new leader in a splendid ceremony," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the BBC last week, without revealing the location of the gathering.

"Now the movement will continue in a united manner."

In recent weeks, hundreds of Taliban commanders, fighters and clerics travelled in and out of Pakistan to try to overcome the open divisions.

Reports from the Pakistani city of Quetta near the Afghan border said the consultations required local supporters to host hundreds of Taliban in mosques, madrassas and private houses, and organise transport and supplies.

The effort put into overcoming the early challenge to Mullah Mansour's leadership suggests how important it was for the movement to preserve unity.

Waheed Mozhda, a Kabul-based expert who used to work in the Taliban foreign ministry before they were driven from power in 2001, says the group realises that unity is key to their survival.
"Their enemies are stronger than they are and therefore they know that if there are differences they will be wiped out," Mr Mozhda says.

Barnett Rubin, a leading US expert on Afghanistan, says the Taliban have been bound together by a coherent ideology that has so far prevented any splits.

"The Taliban were founded to put an end to factionalism and there is a strong presumption against it," says Mr Rubin,

"Everyone follows the commands of the emir. There have been dissident individuals who left or were expelled from the organisation, but once they were expelled or left, they lost all influence."

One potential rival to the Afghan Taliban has emerged with some insurgents in Afghanistan declaring allegiance to the Islamic State group which claims a presence in some parts of the country. But observers say these are a few disgruntled fighters.

"Some Taliban with grievances against the leadership and who found it impossible to organise factions, instead left the organization and joined IS but their number is too small to impose any serious to the movement" says Barnett Rubin.

There are still some challengers to the new emir's authority.
But despite these challenges, the AAN's Borhan Osman thinks there is no sign that the Taliban are seriously weakening.

"The fight is going [on] as intensive as ever. So we don't see any changes on the ground, so far at least."

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