Unite and fight, new Afghan Taliban leader tells followers

Kabul, Afghanistan — The new leader of the Afghan Taliban called on his fighters to unite and follow the path of late leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, a statement issued by the group said Saturday.

“Our unity will defeat our enemies,” Mullah Akhtar Mansoor said in an audio message, the first released since his appointment Thursday, a day after the Afghan government and intelligence agency confirmed his predecessor’s death two years ago.

Mansoor asked his followers to carry on with their holy war until an Islamist state is established in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials said, however, they believed a ceasefire would be on the agenda in the next rounds of talks aimed at ending a more than decadelong Taliban insurgency.

A second round of talks between the government and Taliban was postponed after Omar’s death was reported.

The meeting, which was to have been held Friday in Pakistan, was called off because of “the resulting uncertainty and at the request of the Afghan Taliban leadership,” officials said.

Two Taliban sources said although Mansoor had been approved by the Taliban’s leadership council as the next emir, a large number of people had been opposed to him.

The leadership reshuffle has put the brakes on further peace talks. The postponement of the talks came after the Taliban movement announced in a statement that it had no knowledge of a second round of peace talks reportedly taking place in Islamabad.

The Taliban accused the government of using the peace talks as a propaganda tool and has said the United States is involved.