A man seen by American officials as the most dangerous warlord in the Taliban is being cited as a possible successor to its former Afghan leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.

Afghan guerrilla commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $5m (£3.4m) bounty on his head, is said to be responsible for some of the most deadly attacks, including one last month in Kabul, in which dozens of people were killed.

He is leader of the Haqqani network, considered to be one of the most lethal terrorist organisations around the Afghan-Pakistani border, which also has links to al Qaeda, and is thought to have introduced suicide bombing to Afghanistan.

He is seen as more ruthless than his father Jalaluddin Haqqani, who fought against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

When Mansour became the Taliban's leader last year, Sirajuddin became one of two deputies chosen to assist him and integrated his militant group closely into the Afghan Taliban insurgency.

The Taliban now control more territory than they have done since their expulsion from government in 2001.

During an interview with an American news organisation Sirajuddin admitted to planning the attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul in 2008  that killed six people.

He also confessed to planning the assassination attempt on then Afghan president Hamid Karzai in April 2008.

The US State Department calls Sirajuddin a "specially designated global terrorist".

A leadership council within the Taliban has already begun meeting to choose a successor to Mansour, who was  killed in a drone strike.

While it is by no means certain Sirajuddin would be named its leader he is thought to be someone who can protect the unity of the group.

Serious splits emerged last year when it was confirmed that the movement's founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for two years, leaving his deputy, Mansour, in charge.

Sirajuddin, who is said to be in his mid-40s, has been trying to reconcile those factions within the Taliban.

SkyNews