[Mr. Osman said that after nearly two decades of unified leadership under the Taliban’s secretive founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, who was seen as “a spiritual figure above worldly business,” leadership rifts were revealed under Mullah Mansour, who ruthlessly suppressed dissent and was heavily involved in drug trafficking. Mawlawi Haibatullah, in his recent messages, has said that the movement was deviating from its original intent, and that he wanted it back on track.]
By Mujib Mashal and Taimoor
Shah
KABUL, Afghanistan — Early Thursday morning,
Taliban fighters in southern Helmand Province launched a daring attack: They
packed explosives into three stolen Humvees originally supplied to Afghan
forces by the United States and drove them into Afghan security outposts. After
the Humvees exploded, other suicide attackers followed.
On Saturday, the Taliban released an
astonishing bit of information about that attack, which took place in the
province’s Gereshk district: One of the suicide bombers was the son of their
supreme leader, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada.
Although at least three Taliban officials
confirmed the son’s death, the Taliban are known for making claims that
frequently turn out to be baseless, and this one could not immediately be
verified independently. But researchers and Taliban watchers have documented
that Mawlawi Haibatullah’s son signed up for a suicide mission some time ago,
and reports of his role in Thursday’s attack were spreading rapidly among
Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan. In the north, some insurgent
commanders said they did not know whether the reports were accurate.
If the claim proves to be true, the
willingness of a top leader’s son to sacrifice his life for the cause would be
a propaganda victory for insurgents fighting against an Afghan government that
is struggling to keep the families of most of its own senior leaders inside the
country.
As the fighting season heats up, with
violence raging in 12 of the country’s 34 provinces, the news could be a morale
booster for the insurgency’s rank and file after a long period during which the
Taliban leadership has grown increasingly corrupt, entangled in drug
trafficking and unsettled by infighting. The episode is also expected to help
Mawlawi Haibatullah, a little-known cleric with no military experience who has
struggled to make his mark as the movement’s new leader. Mawlawi is a title
reserved for Islamic scholars.
The Afghan government said the claim was
nothing more than propaganda.
“They lied — it’s part of propaganda,” said
Sediq Sediqqi, the director of the Afghan government’s media and information
center. “The Taliban leaders and their families are living in luxury in
Pakistan and Qatar, and they incite others to kill Afghans in the name of
jihad.”
A member of the Taliban leadership council,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety,
identified Mawlawi Haibatullah’s son as Hafiz Abdur Rahman Khalid, 23. The
younger of the leader’s two sons, Mr. Khalid spent much of his childhood
studying under his father, who ran a madrasa near the Pakistani city of Quetta
in the years after the Taliban government was toppled in 2001. The Taliban
council member said Mr. Khalid often drove to Helmand and stayed with Taliban
fighters for long stretches.
The Taliban official said Mr. Khalid had
signed up for a suicide mission nine months ago, but the main Taliban
spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said he had made his decision three years ago.
Both officials said Mawlawi Haibatullah knew that his son had volunteered for a
suicide attack and that he approved of his decision.
As the fighting season heats up, with
violence raging in 12 of the country’s 34 provinces, the news could be a morale
booster for the insurgency’s rank and file after a long period during which the
Taliban leadership has grown increasingly corrupt, entangled in drug
trafficking and unsettled by infighting. The episode is also expected to help
Mawlawi Haibatullah, a little-known cleric with no military experience who has
struggled to make his mark as the movement’s new leader. Mawlawi is a title
reserved for Islamic scholars.
The Afghan government said the claim was
nothing more than propaganda.
“They lied — it’s part of propaganda,” said
Sediq Sediqqi, the director of the Afghan government’s media and information
center. “The Taliban leaders and their families are living in luxury in
Pakistan and Qatar, and they incite others to kill Afghans in the name of
jihad.”
A member of the Taliban leadership council,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety,
identified Mawlawi Haibatullah’s son as Hafiz Abdur Rahman Khalid, 23. The
younger of the leader’s two sons, Mr. Khalid spent much of his childhood
studying under his father, who ran a madrasa near the Pakistani city of Quetta
in the years after the Taliban government was toppled in 2001. The Taliban
council member said Mr. Khalid often drove to Helmand and stayed with Taliban
fighters for long stretches.
The Taliban official said Mr. Khalid had
signed up for a suicide mission nine months ago, but the main Taliban
spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said he had made his decision three years ago.
Both officials said Mawlawi Haibatullah knew that his son had volunteered for a
suicide attack and that he approved of his decision.
The Taliban spokesman’s account emphasized
that Mr. Khalid’s mission was proof of his father’s dedication to the Taliban’s
insurgency. Details of the attack on the outpost were sketchy, but a member of
the provincial council said that at least two Afghan soldiers had been killed
and that six others were wounded.
Mawlawi Haibatullah’s control over the
Taliban movement has been questioned because he lacks any battlefield
experience. Borhan Osman, a senior researcher with the Afghanistan Analysts
Network who has written extensively about the Taliban, said Mawlawi Haibatullah
had been preoccupied with efforts to return the Taliban to its puritanical
origins after a period of ideological corruption and bloody retribution by his
predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.
Mr. Osman said that after nearly two decades
of unified leadership under the Taliban’s secretive founder, Mullah Muhammad
Omar, who was seen as “a spiritual figure above worldly business,” leadership
rifts were revealed under Mullah Mansour, who ruthlessly suppressed dissent and
was heavily involved in drug trafficking. Mawlawi Haibatullah, in his recent
messages, has said that the movement was deviating from its original intent, and
that he wanted it back on track.
“Haibatullah is a cleric who has shown he is
not much for the worldly business either, and he is trying to return to the
earlier spiritual way of Mullah Omar’s leadership,” Mr. Osman said. His son’s
participation in a suicide attack “will most likely have a positive impact for
his leadership, as the fighters and commanders will see his piety and
investment in the cause.”
While the Taliban began using suicide
bombings as early as 2004, Mr. Osman said that when Mawlawi Haibatullah was a
top religious adviser to Mullah Omar in 2008, he was heavily involved in
discussions to develop an ideological justification for the wider use of such
attacks.
Among Taliban fighters in the field, word of
the suicide mission of their leader’s son seemed to be traveling fast.
“A true leader is like Mullah Haibatullah,
who did not care for his son and let him be sacrificed like hundreds and
thousands of other Taliban,” said Mullah Khaksar, a Taliban commander in
Oruzgan Province. “This will have an effect on the Taliban morale.”
Mujib Mashal reported from Kabul, and Taimoor
Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan.
