Afghan Taliban names a new leader

Latest round of peace talks with government postponed

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – The Taliban has chosen supreme leader Mullah Omar’s deputy to replace him, two commanders said on Thursday, as Pakistan announced that scheduled peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government would be postponed.

Pakistan cited a statement in Kabul on Wednesday about Omar’s death as the reason for the delay in negotiations, amid fears that it could trigger a potentially bloody succession battle.

Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour was appointed leader at a meeting of the Taliban’s top representatives, many of whom are based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, according to the sources who were present at the gathering.

“The shura [gathering] held outside Quetta unanimously elected Mullah Mansour as the new emir of the Taliban,” said one commander at the Wednesday night meeting.

Siraj Haqqani, leader of the powerful Haqqani faction, will be a deputy to Mansour.

Mansour will be the Taliban’s second leader, as Omar, an elusive figure rarely seen in public, was the founder of the Islamist movement in the 1990s. The Taliban went on to conquer most of Afghanistan, where it imposed strict Islamist law, before being driven from power in 2011 by a US-led military intervention.

The Afghan government said on Wednesday that Omar died more than two years ago in the Pakistani city of Karachi, while Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said that “We are aware of the reports and trying to ascertain the details.”

The announcement threw into disarray a fledgling peace process fostered by neighboring Pakistan aimed at ending more than 13 years of war between the Taliban and the Western-backed Afghan government in Kabul.

The Taliban’s official spokesman said early on Thursday that its negotiators based in Doha were “not aware of this process” in Pakistan.

Later in the day, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said a planned second round of meetings set for Friday would be delayed at the request of the Taliban leadership. The two sides held inaugural talks in Pakistan earlier this month.

“Pakistan and other friendly countries of Afghanistan hope that the Taliban leadership will stay engaged in the process of peace talks in order to promote a lasting peace in Afghanistan,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Mansour’s appointment is unlikely to please everyone in the Taliban. Key field commanders have criticized the peace process and vowed to fight for power, rather than negotiate it.

Several have left the movement altogether, pledging allegiance to Islamic State and targeting the Taliban itself.

In a reminder of the threat posed by insurgents stepping up their campaign to overthrow the government, the Taliban captured a district in the southern province of Helmand that foreign troops struggled to secure for years.

District officials said the Taliban had wrested control of the Now Zad district on Wednesday after two days of fighting.

Residents of the area, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said bodies of security personnel and Taliban fighters were lying in the streets after the battle.