Taliban releases audio of new leader

An Afghan store clerk waits for customers at a news stand where local papers carry headlines about the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, August 1, 2015.

“Mansoor, 48, who has been chosen to replace Mullah Omar, in a 33-minute audio message mentioned that the Taliban will use” military and political options” to achieve their goals.

The authenticity of the audio clip could not be verified, albeit Mujahid deals with all communications for the group. “In the name of jihad, the killing of innocent people is not Islamic”. A second round of negotiations scheduled to take place last Friday has been postponed.

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”.

“People … were not happy with Mullah Mansour‎ when he agreed with ‎Pakistan … to hold a meeting with Kabul”, said a Taliban commander based in Quetta. “We will have to convince them and take them on board”.

He added: “We can’t ignore that Mansoor has faced strong internal opposition to his leadership”.

The US long-suspected Pakistan of sheltering Mullah Omar and even confronted then President Asif Ali Zardari in 2011 over intelligence inputs that the one-eyed Taliban supremo was being treated at a Karachi hospital, according to a media report.

Those commanders have made steady gains in recent months across northern Afghanistan – far from the group’s traditional heartland – as Afghan security forces have struggled in the absence of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation combat troops, who switched to a support and training role at the end of previous year.

“This is a big responsibly on us”.

“The enemy can’t defeat us if we show unity”, he said in an audio recording that Taliban members provided to journalists.

“We must be united, otherwise our enemies will win in our separation”, Mansoor said.

If Mansoor fails to appease his fighters and field commanders, the ultimate beneficiary could be the Islamic State.

Although it is too soon to know how these dynamics will play out, analysts and diplomats said the Taliban now faces an acute existential crisis that could lead to a permanent split, with some factions deciding to reconcile with the government and others lured into the embrace of the Islamic State, whose presence is rapidly growing in parts of Afghanistan.

Mullah Mansour will also have to work hard to maintain the unity of the Taliban as a coherent force. He had not been seen in public since fleeing over the border into Pakistan after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban from power.

It would have been only the second formal face-to-face meeting with the Taliban, according to the AP.

The Taliban on Saturday denied reports of the death of the founder of Haqqani network, its allied militant group blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan.

“This claim has no basis”. Nawaz says that it is absolutely imperative that Mansoor quickly consolidates his position within the leadership of the Taliban, to prevent the splintering of an already very divided group. “It’s not clear if Mullah Omar had much, if any, influence left at the time of his death, and many believe he’d been reduced to a symbolic figurehead”, wrote correspondent Tom A. Peter. 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.