Taliban names new leader

KABUL (Dow Jones/AP) – The Taliban appointed religious council chief Maulavi Haibatullah its new leader, it said Wednesday, following the death of its former head in a US drone strike last week.

The decision comes four days after Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in southwest Pakistan, sending the group into a second leadership crisis over in less than a year.

Maulavi Haibatullah’s two new deputies include the son of the Taliban’s founder, seen as a unifying figure within the fragmented insurgency, and Siraj Haqqani, the leader of a US-designated terror group in Afghanistan.

Mansour was killed in Pakistan on Saturday when his vehicle was struck by a US drone, an attack that is believed to be the first time a Taliban leader was killed in such a way inside Pakistani territory.

Pakistani authorities are believed to have given shelter and support to some Taliban leaders over the Afghan border. The insurgents have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government since 2001, when their own Islamist regime was overthrown by the US invasion.

The US and Afghan governments said Mansour had been an obstacle to a peace process that had ground to a halt when he refused to participate in peace talks earlier this year. Instead, he intensified the war in Afghanistan, now in its 15th year.

Senior Taliban figures have said his death could strengthen the movement, as he was a divisive figure. The identity of his successor was expected to be an indication of the direction the insurgency would take, either toward peace or continued war.

Akhundzada is a religious scholar known for issuing public statements justifying the existence of the extremist Taliban, their war against the Afghan government and the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan. His views are regarded as hawkish, and he could be expected to continue in the aggressive footsteps of Mansour.