We Americans love some winners…..but not all winners are good news….
Recently the US used a drone (the weapon of choice for targeted assassination) to kill the leader of Afghanistan’s Taleban….and this time he is really dead…..not some press release that is retracted in a week or so….nope the dude is dead….confirmed by the Taleban themselves. (I still would like to know how many civilians were at the location).
After the death announcement was released the Taleban stated that there would be a shura (supreme council) to pick the new leader for the Taleban….and the winner is…….
Senior Taliban members, after successfully evading American drone strikes for long enough to hold a leadership conference, have named a successor to the leader killed in a US airstrike last week. The Afghan Taliban, acknowledging Mullah Mansour’s death for the first time, announced Wednesday that he will be succeeded by one of his deputies, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada. The BBC reports that unlike Mansour, Akhundzada is an uncontroversial choice who has, until now, served more as a religious leader than a military commander and has issued most of the group’s fatwas.
Akhundzada is believed to be a member of the powerful Noorzai tribe from Kandahar, which analysts say will make it easier for him to unite the group. The BBC puts the new leader’s age at somewhere between 45 and 50, though Reuters reports that it’s closer to 60. He is a former aide to Mullah Omar, according to Taliban sources, and like that leader, he is notoriously camera-shy. On the same day Akhundzada was named as the group’s leader, the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that hit a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul that killed at least 10 people, the AP reports.
He was said to have been chosen over two key rivals – Sirajuddin Haqqani and Maulvi Yakub – due to his religious background.
Now the question is will the two that were passed over take the loss well?
The next question…at least in my mind is……if the US knew the shura was going to happen why not try to take out the council in one fell swoop?
But I guess that is a post for another day…I would not want to confuse my readers unnecessarily.
Good job! Civilians? There are always unnecessary casualties in wars. It is inevitable and unavoidable.
Remember, all male civilians are automatically reclassified as “enemy combatants. So, as long as you don’t kill any women or males under 16 (I think it’s 16) you could blow up an entire soccer stadium of people and there will be NOT ONE “civilian” death. Ain’t wordplay fun?
And the added bonus is that all those dead “enemy combatants” just inspire more people to become actual Enemy Combatants, thus ensuring perpetually rising profits for MISC Industries. Invest today!
By all means!
Mind you, if I were the Taliban, I’d confirm every single alleged “kill” of my leadership. Being declared dead keeps my leadership safe and it only encourages the US to deploy my #1 recruitment tool…flying death robots.
I agree…LOL