MoD: Taliban Splinter Means Group’s Defeat

Afghanistan Ministry of National Defense (MoD) says that the armed Taliban group has been defeated in war, but one thing that remains challenging for Afghan troops is Taliban’s Propaganda War.

With Mullah Omar’s death a split has emerged among the Taliban famous figures which mean their defeat in war.

The Taliban, battling to oust foreign forces and the US-backed government from Afghanistan, were thrown into turmoil in July when the death of their long-term leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was announced.

“Taliban splinter is the strong punches by Afghan security forces, the unity for Taliban leaders is not important for us,” Baz Muhammad Jawhari, deputy of MoD training department said.

Omar’s deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, took charge but there was grumbling in the ranks and some analysts have attributed big Taliban attacks in recent months to a bid by Mansour to establish his reputation as leader and stamp his authority over the group.

However, at the other side a commander within the dissident faction said they had chosen Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund as their leader and they would not fight Mansour but would keep their focus on old enemies.

Akhund, 50, is a former Taliban governor of two provinces but not a religious scholar.

Now, with the reality out in the open, some analysts believe the question is not whether the Taliban will splinter, but how severely.

The answer has important implications for an already-chaotic battlefield that Afghan and Western officials are struggling to keep up with, and also for the prospect of any negotiated peace.

Over the past several years, Taliban leaders who once had access to Mullah Omar largely became cut off.

Mullah Mansour, a close associate of Mullah Omar’s for more than two decades and the minister of aviation during the Taliban government, became the primary conduit for leadership directives, Afghan and American officials said, citing intelligence reporting.