July 23, 2017

TALIBAN SAY TOP LEADER’S SON CARRIED OUT A SUICIDE ATTACK

[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.