SUMMARY

The conflict between the High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate and the Taleban stems from a leadership conflict in August 2015. Following the announcement of Taleban leader Mullah Omar's death, and the realization that the central leadership of the Taleban had kept his death a secret for two years, several commanders started to oppose the newly elected Mullah Mansour as the leader of the Taleban, refusing to pledge allegiance to him.

The High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate questioned the transparency of the process in which Mansour was elected, saying that he "got himself elected in a meeting of his own people", and that he was not the legitimate leader.

The High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate leader Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund and his deputy Mullah Mansoor Dadullah were two of the main commanders fighting the Taleban, in Hirat and Zabul provinces respectively.

In Zabul, the High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate forces were joined by Uzbek militants who had become part of the Khorasan Province of the Islamic State (IS). Events in which IS participated are coded as part of a separate non-state conflict: High Council of the Afghanistan Islamic Emirate, IS - Taleban.

Mansoor Dadullah was killed in the clashes in Zabul in November 2015.

After Taleban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a US drone in Pakistan in May 2016, fighting continued between the High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate under Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund and the new Taleban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The non-state conflict between the High Council of Afghanistan Islamic Emirate and the Taleban is first included in UCDP data in 2015. In early September that year, clashes took place in Shindad district, Hirat, which resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths.