Mullah Mansour often travelled to UAE, Iran: Afghan Taliban

The Afghan Taliban confirmed that their former leader Mullah Mansour frequently travelled to the Middle East over the past decade in order to raise funds for an insurgency against US-led forces, highlighting the ease with which the group was able to move around the region.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike on Saturday, used a Pakistani passport to visit the United Arab Emirates, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s main spokesman, said by phone. Mansour had been on a United Nations no-fly list since 2001.

“He held meetings with Afghan businessmen and Islamic nations in the UAE to discuss our Afghan holy war and raise funds for Taliban operations in Western-occupied Afghanistan,” Mujahid said. He added that Mansour also travelled to neighbouring Iran on “unofficial trips”.

The Taliban on Wednesday confirmed Mansour’s death and named Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada as his successor.

Earlier this week, Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari denied that Mansour had crossed its border before the strike.

Afghan security agencies are investigating Mansour’s international trips, according to Sayed Zafar Hashemi, the Deputy Spokesman to President Ashraf Ghani. He told reporters on Tuesday that he couldn’t provide further information.

“His trips were likely to get funds from intelligence agencies there in exchange to keep their strategic interests and influence across our region,” Ahmad Saeedi, a former Afghan Diplomat to Pakistan, said by phone. He might also have made tens of millions of dollars in cash from selling drugs there.

The Taliban primarily fund their insurgency through illegal mining of Afghan minerals, drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and foreign donations, according to the Human Rights Commission of Afghanistan.

Pakistan has long been accused of harbouring the Taliban’s top leadership. It sees the group, which is predominately Pashtun and based in southern Afghanistan, as a counterbalance to ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks who are more aligned with India.