Taliban eulogize Mullah Mansour despite his role in hiding the death of Mullah Omar

On the ninth anniversary of his death, the Taliban eulogized Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, its previous emir, as a martyr of “courage and vision.” The group published this tribute despite Mansour playing a key role in lying to Taliban leaders about the death of Taliban founder and first emir Mullah Omar while issuing statements and religious edicts in Omar’s name.

Mansour, the former leader of the Afghan Taliban who succeeded Omar and had served as his deputy, died in May 2016 at the hands of a US drone strike while traveling in a remote area between Pakistan and Iran.

The Taliban issued its formal tribute to Mansour on its official website, Al Emerah, on May 22. The group paints Mansour as a stalwart figure in the movement’s leadership who was “dedicated to the cause of Jihad from those early days [fighting the Soviets] until his martyrdom.”

The Taliban listed Mansour’s accomplishments as “uniting the ranks of the Mujahideen,” the “expansion of successful campaigns and conquests [particularly the takeover of Kunduz in 2016],” a “heightened military pressure on the enemy,” “diplomacy from a position of strength,” and “stability in leadership and order on the fronts.” Mansour led the Taliban from 2013 after the death of Mullah Omar until his death in 2016. During this period, the Taliban insurgency expanded, and the group began seizing control of districts throughout Afghanistan as the US military transferred control to Afghan security forces.

The Taliban’s tribute to Mansour emphasized his role in keeping the group unified after Omar’s death, as well as his steadfastness in the face of external pressures, including the international community’s push for a political settlement in Afghanistan. As the successor to Omar, Mansour was tasked with directing the Taliban’s insurgency at a difficult time after the loss of their founder and revered leader.

The eulogy portrays Mansour’s death as a martyrdom and claims he “embodied the legacy of sacrifice and the guardian of Mujahideen ideals.” Mansour’s death, the Taliban argues, is part of a larger, inevitable struggle [jihad] that will continue long after his passing.

Mullah Mansour’s leadership after Mullah Omar’s death

Mansour’s rise to power after Omar’s death was shrouded in controversy. While Omar passed away sometime in 2013, the Taliban’s leadership, which included Mansour, concealed this fact and issued official statements, orders, and fatwas in Omar’s name up until July 2015, when the group finally admitted Omar had died.

Mansour and the leadership council’s deception nearly tore the Taliban’s alliance of regional and political factions apart. Many influential Taliban leaders and commanders, such as Mullah Omar’s brother, Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund, Omar’s son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoub, Anwar ul Haq, and the family of Mullah Dadullah Akhund, were unhappy that the emir’s death in April 2013 was hidden from them and Mansour was selected to replace Omar. These factions refused to swear allegiance to Mansour for a short period but later reconciled with the help of Jalaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani.

Mansour’s deception caused divisions within the rank and file of the once-united jihadi alliance in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the broader region that have never healed. Some smaller Afghan and Pakistani Taliban factions, about half of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and some disaffected members of Al Qaeda broke away from the Taliban’s sphere of influence and formed the Islamic State Khorasan Province, which remains a thorn in the side of the Taliban to this day.

Despite the challenges resulting from concealing Omar’s death, Mansour sought to solidify his leadership and continue the Taliban’s military campaign in Afghanistan. His short tenure as Taliban emir was marked by a more centralized command structure, a disciplined military strategy, and a reassertion of the group’s ideological focus on implementing a strict and harsh interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

The killing of Mullah Mansour did not impact the insurgency

On May 21, 2016, Mansour was killed in a drone strike while traveling in a vehicle near the Pakistani-Iranian border. The US government confirmed that Mansour had been targeted and killed in an operation that was part of its broader strategy to target key Taliban leadership figures. In a statement following the attack, US President Barack Obama called the strike a “major blow” to the Taliban’s leadership and its ability to operate in the region.

Mullah Mansour’s death was a significant tactical blow to the Taliban, as it came at a time when the organization was regrouping after the loss of Omar and the fallout from leaders’ efforts to conceal his death. However, Mansour’s death failed to deal the group a strategic defeat.

The Taliban was able to weather the controversy over hiding Omar’s death and deal with Mansour’s death with relatively minimal impact. Five years and three months after Mansour’s death, the Taliban seized control of Kabul, ousted the Afghan government, and reimposed its Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan on the Afghan people.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD’s Long War Journal.