Afghanistan seeks to establish fate of ‘injured’ Taliban chief

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Afghan officials scrambled Thursday to establish
the fate of Taliban supremo Mullah Akhtar
Mansour, after intelligence sources said he was
grievously wounded in a firefight following a
bitter argument with commanders in the divided
militant movement.
It remains unclear whether Mansour survived the
gunbattle, which threatens to derail a renewed
regional push to jumpstart peace talks with the
Taliban.
The clash broke out just four months after
Mansour was appointed Taliban leader in a
deeply acrimonious leadership succession. Talks
had stalled after the militants belatedly confirmed
longtime leader Mullah Omar’s death in late July.
The Taliban officially rejected as “absolutely
baseless” the reports of the gunfight, which
officials and militant sources said was triggered
by a verbal duel at an insurgent gathering that
cascaded out of control.
“We are trying to establish whether Mansour is
dead or alive,” said Sultan Faizi, the spokesman
for the Afghan first vice president.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official told AFP
that Mansour had been “very seriously injured”
in what he described as a “heavy exchange of
fire” at a gathering of militant commanders near
the town of Quetta.
An Afghan intelligence official and multiple
insurgent sources close to Mansour’s group
confirmed the account to AFP, adding that the
firefight left at least four Taliban members dead
and several others wounded.
“The reports are still sketchy, but the sheer
volume of rumours suggesting that something has
happened to Mansour will pressure the Taliban to
offer proof that he’s alive,” a Western official in
Kabul told AFP.
“Simply posting denials on their website won’t be
considered credible enough, especially after
Mullah Omar’s death was concealed for years.”
The purported firefight exposes deepening
divisions within the fractious militant movement,
which saw its first formal split last month after a
breakaway faction surfaced.
There was conflicting information on the location
of the confrontation, with some sources claiming
that it took place near the southern Afghan city
of Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the
Taliban.
But they all agreed the meeting was at the home
of Abdullah Sarhadi, a commander in Mansour’s
group and a former Guantanamo Bay detainee.
“There were differences on some points which
later turned into harsh words, then Sarhadi
opened fire and the others returned fire,” a
Taliban source said.
It was unclear what the argument was about.
Mansour is reported to be under growing
pressure from Pakistani intelligence to restart
peace talks with Afghan authorities, a contentious
issue that has prompted much rancour within
hardline insurgent ranks.