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Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor will serve as the group’s new leader, the Taliban confirmed in a statement Friday.

The new leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, has declared that “the jihad will continue until there is an Islamic system” in Afghanistan, and he called on the Taliban to remain unified just as they had when his predecessor was at the helm.

That’s when Yaqoob, and his principal backer, Zakir, a senior Taliban military commander, sacked by Akhtar Mansoor in April 2014, began whispering about the likelihood of Omar’s possible death.

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.

There were no claims of responsibility late Friday.

Said to be in his mid-80s, Haqqani fought against the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a commander of the Hizb-e-Islami Yunus Khalis group but is more noted for the role his Haqqani network faction of the Taliban played in attacking U.S.-led foreign forces after they...

The Taliban have also now officially confirmed the NEWS on Thursday that Mullah Omar died of an illness some time ago and that they have elected Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansoor as his successor.

Police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said the pre-dawn blast was near a Defence Ministry compound, but that all of the victims were civilians, including women and children. The Defense Ministry said the crash appeared to have been caused by a technical problem, without elaborating.

The source did not give details of what evidence the Afghan government used to come to the decision, but said it had sufficient information to conclude that Omar died of hepatitis B about two years ago, and his death was kept secret to keep the group together. Truth be told, no...

In an apparent damage-control measure, the Taliban leadership shura was hurriedly convened to nominate the Taliban’s once-upon-a-time civil aviation minister and Omar’s deputy, Akhar Muhammad Mansoor, as the new ameer – also a tacit acknowledgement that the...

An Afghan with links to top Taliban leaders had approached Afghanistan’s intelligence service in the winter of 2014 with the “startling tip” that Mullah Omar had died in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.

Relatives of Mullah Omar have contested Mullah Mansoor’s appointment, demanding a wider vote that includes battlefield commanders as their almost 14-year insurgency continues.

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

“We should remove our differences”.

Those who are suspicious of Pakistan’s role in these events believe that Mullah Omar’s longstanding opposition to reconciliation with the ill-equipped and shaky Kabul regime may have outlived its use. This ruled out his 26-year-old son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoub, who is...