KABUL: The killing of Afghan Taliban Leader Mullah Mansour in US air strike is likely to trigger another leadership tussle in a militant movement and the Afghan Taliban will once again face the tough task of electing a new leader. Although some individual Taliban members have been quoted in media reports saying that Mansour was killed, the movement’s leadership, keenly aware of the need to limit damaging splits, has not issued its own confirmation. The Taliban have already begun consultations to elect a new chief. “The leadership is being very careful because one wrong step could divide the group into many parties like former militants,” one Taliban official from the eastern province of Nangarhar said, referring to the guerrilla leaders who fought the Soviet in the 1980s and ’90s before splitting into warring factions. A shura, or leadership council, has already begun meeting to choose a successor, a task that will be vital to protecting the unity of the movement. Shura senior member said that the choice appeared to be shaping around Mansour’s deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, or a member of the family of the Taliban’s founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, such as his son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob. “We prefer someone from Omar’s family to put an end to all internal problems,” he said. Earlier, US President Barack Obama had confirmed the death of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a US drone attack. “Death of Mullah Mansour is a milestone for peace in Afghanistan. We have finished off leader of a group which would attack the US and its allies,” he said.