was a prominent Taliban commander, before reaching the top command chain by being the movement's new leader. He is known among Jihadists for his cunningness and vision. He was born in 1960 in Afghanistan's Maiwand district in southern Kandahar governorate. He lived at short distance from Mullah Mohamed Omar, when the country fell into civil war, after the departure of Soviet soldiers in 1989. Mullah Mansoor, like his predecessor Mullah Omar, enjoys a strong political support and popularity near Kandahar, which is believed to be the place where Taliban was established. He has roots from the Durrani dynasty of the Pashtun tribe that covers much of the fighting force all over the city. He also studied at the Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa, outside Peshawar, near the border in Pakistan, like his predecessor Mullah Mansoor. Additionally, he, like Mullah Omar, had been captured on camera few times. The new Taliban leader was a founding member of the group, as he joined it after it was formed to fight against the ruthless warlords in the area. He also exerted a lot of efforts to bring funds and arms to the movement members from rich businessmen in his tribe. He knew Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar personally, but opted not to take a leading position in the group. However, He ascended to the leadership positions as a lot of prominent leaders were detained and killed by Pakistani security forces. In spite of this, a number of Jihadist critics accuse him of killing Mullah omar, explaining to Al Bawaba News that Mullah Mansoor's support for the peace talks was the reason behind his alleged action. Mullah Mansoor served as an aviation minister, giving daily instructions on logistics of the movement's air combats against oppositions in the north of the country. He has been known as a leading member of the movement in 2010, when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials paid several thousands of dollars transporting a supposed senior commander of Taliban to Kabul in order to attend peace talks, only to find out that they had been transferring a grocer who was pretending to be Mullah Mansoor, the Wall Street Journal reported last year. Mullah Mansoor holds a reputation among the members of the movement for being a moderate and supporter of peace talks, raising speculations about a possible end to several years of fighting. "He is known among fighters in the field as more into peace talks than Mullah Omar, and less strict," said a Taliban commander who spoke to the guardian on condition of anonymity Saturday. Furthermore, he had been a strong promoter for peace talks and encouraged the meetings in Doha this year, in which Taliban used for the first time in the movement's history, the word "election" and issued more moderate statements concerning the role of women. However, he fell often in differences with ruthless Taliban leader, Abdul Qayyum Zakir, who he later replaced as the movement's highest military official several years ago. In 1997, when Taliban initially attempted to seize control over the northern city of Mazar El Sharif, but ended up in failure, Mansoor fell prisoner to an Uzbek warlord. After spending two months in prison, Mullah Omar struck a deal with the warlord to get him out. He is believed to have taken a major part in hijacking Indian Airlines flight number IC-814 in 1999, according to officials following the investigation of the incident, who spoke to The Sunday Express on condition of anonymity Saturday. In 2001, he abandoned armed struggle, same as several prominent leaders of the movement, in order to ask the Afghan president at that time, Hamid Karzai for amnesty and return to his home district. However, the US forces refused to believe that the movement's leaders have abandoned armed struggle and decided to keep a close eye on Mullah Mansoor. He was frequently summoned by the US forces for questioning, pushing him to flee to Pakistan, where he reshaped the movement's branch there into a fierce force. Last month he made a statement warning the Islamic State (IS) not to ignite divisions in the global jihadist movement and advised it to join Taliban in the fight in Afghanistan, claiming that Mullah Omar was still alive.
