New leader elected by Afghan Taliban after Mullah Omar’s death

It is widely believed that Mullah Omar fled over the border to Pakistan, where he lived under Pakistani protection until his death.

The Taliban said Thursday that Mullah Omar’s family had confirmed his death from an unspecified illness, though no time frame was given. The Afghan unit of Taliban was already growing weak since militant outfit has been split apart by factionalism.

Rifts in the Taliban leadership could widen after confirmation this week of the death of elusive founder Omar.

“There has always been Mullah Omar“.

“Actually, it wasn’t a Taliban Leadership Council meeting”.

The group also named two deputies to Mansoor – Maulvi Haibatullah Akhunzada, who headed the group’s judiciary, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, son of a leader of the Haqqani network, a group that operates in close coordination with the Taliban.

The statement did not mention the succession.

As Afghanistan expert Michael Semple wrote Thursday, Mullah Omar was the group’s “most powerful talisman”, serving as a symbol of cohesion and unity who purportedly exerted meticulous control over its operations.

However, a third member of the family said the reports were true. Taliban yesterday confirmed the death of Omar.

He was Afghanistan’s de facto leader from 1996 until late 2001, when a U.S.-led coalition invaded and booted the Taliban from power for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 terror attacks.

“Mullah Omar was sick and was hospitalized two years and four months ago in a hospital near the city of Karachi“. After the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban, he was put in charge of political and military affairs in the Supreme Council, a seven-member body which takes major decisions.

Peace talks between the Taliban and the current Afghanistan government, due to be held in and mediated by neighboring Pakistan, have been postponed indefinitely in the meantime.

And Taliban insiders say that by sending a three-member delegation to meet Afghan officials in the Pakistani resort of Murree earlier in July, Mansour sparked new criticism.

Several have left the movement altogether, pledging allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East and targeting the Taliban itself in a worrying new development.

The Afghan government and Taliban declined to confirm or reject the reports.

But some intelligence officials estimate Mansour only directly controls about 40 per cent of fighters in the field, he said. The ISI does have long links with Islamic militants in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, since at least the 1980s, when it funneled weapons and money to insurgents battling Soviet forces.