New leader struggles to reunite Taliban

Earlier, reports had said that following Omar’s death, Mansour was elected as the group’s leader after the Taliban Shura Council met at an undisclosed location in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan to decide on Omar’s replacement.

Mansoor, who was the aviation minister under Mullah Omar’s leadership during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan of 1996-2001, is a supporter of peace talks between the Taliban and the government, however he has accumulated many rivals within the Taliban who oppose peace talks or negotiations.

The Taliban announced Mansoor as their new leader on Thursday and released a purported audio statement from him on Saturday in which he called for unity in the Taliban.

The 30-minute speech could not be independently verified.

Newspapers hang for sale at a stand carrying headlines about the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, August 1, 2015. A second round of talks, which has been scheduled to begin Friday in Pakistan, has been indefinitely postponed. “We have fought for 25 years and we will not lose our achievements”. Instead, there are now romanticized commentaries how US may actually miss Mullah Omar because he was the unifying factor in the Taliban. Whatever happens must comply with Sharia law, whether that be jihad, or talks, or an invitation to either. However, a spokesman for the group told BBC that Mullah Mansoor had not been appointed “by all Taliban” which, he said, was against Shariah.

Despite the display of bravado and the release of an official Taliban video showing a variety of Afghan clerics and elders pledging loyalty to Mansour, he faces internal opposition from relatives of Omar, militant commanders and other influential Taliban members who question the hasty, secretive meeting in the Pakistani city of Quetta at which Mansour was chosen.

The Afghan government said it is optimistic about the peace process after Omar’s death, saying the “road for the Afghan peace talks is more paved now than before”.

The latest claim by Fidai Mahaz comes amid deep rifts within senior commanders regarding the selection of new leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor. The Taliban denied recent rumors that Haqqani, like Mullah Omar, had died in secret. “Division in our ranks will only please our enemies, and cause further problems for us”, Mansour said in the audio recording posted on the Taliban website. “This is a big responsibility for us”.

At least one Taliban faction would have preferred Mullah Omar’s son to succeed him, it said.

“We will continue our jihad until the creation of an Islamic system”.

Thousands of neighborhood and worldwide Taliban troop recently propelled control of greater than 100 towns in the spot yet the safety and security influences had taking into consideration that retaken a few earth, Rezaee said. As the rise of Islamic State has shown, an even more radical group could rise out of the disintegration of the Taliban. “The Taliban don’t believe in the peace process”.

They were toppled in a U.S.-led invasion after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Jalaluddin’s son Sirajuddin was elected as the Taliban’s deputy to Mansoor – a move possibly aimed at ensuring a steady cash flow from the Haqqani’s wealthy backers and appeasing hardliners.