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Afghan Taliban announce successor to Mullah Mansour | Afghan Taliban announce successor to Mullah Mansour |
(35 minutes later) | |
The Afghan Taliban have announced a new leader to replace Mullah Akhtar Mansour who was killed in a US drone strike. | The Afghan Taliban have announced a new leader to replace Mullah Akhtar Mansour who was killed in a US drone strike. |
In a statement, the Taliban acknowledged Mansour's death for the first time and named his successor as Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada. | In a statement, the Taliban acknowledged Mansour's death for the first time and named his successor as Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada. |
Mansour was killed in a strike on his car in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Saturday. | Mansour was killed in a strike on his car in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Saturday. |
He took over the militant group in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar. | |
Separately on Wednesday, 10 people were killed and four injured in a suicide attack that hit a bus carrying court employees in Kabul, government officials told the BBC. | |
Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, a religious scholar and former head of the Taliban courts, was one of the Afghan Taliban's deputy leaders. | |
"Haibatullah Akhundzada has been appointed as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) after a unanimous agreement in the shura (supreme council), and all the members of shura pledged allegiance to him," the Taliban said in a statement. | |
It also said that Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Mullah Omar, would become a joint deputy head of the movement, alongside current deputy leader Sirajuddin Haqqani. |