Afghan Taliban get new leader

Kabul/Peshawar, May 25 

The Afghan Taliban today named an Islamic legal scholar who was one of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour’s deputies to succeed him, after confirming Mansour’s death in a US drone strike at the weekend.

Within an hour of the announcement of Haibatullah Akhundzada’s appointment, a Taliban suicide bomber attacked a shuttle bus carrying court employees west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, killing up to 11 persons and wounding several others, including children.

The new Taliban leader was named in a United Nations report last year as former chief of the Sharia-based justice system during the Taliban’s five-year rule over Afghanistan, which ended with their ouster in 2001.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of a feared network blamed for many deadly bomb attacks in Kabul in recent years, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, will serve as deputies.

The announcement, following a meeting of the Taliban’s main shura, or leadership council, ended days of confusion during which the Taliban declined to confirm the death of Mansour in a drone strike in Pakistan on Saturday. “The shura members have pledged allegiance to Sheikh Haibatullah in a safe place in Afghanistan,” the statement said.

“All people are required to obey the new Emir-al-Momineen (commander of the faithful).” Akhundzada, believed to be around 60 years of age and a member of the powerful Noorzai tribe, was a close aide of Omar and is from Kandahar, in the south of Afghanistan and the heartland of the Taliban. 

Warning for new leader

The Afghan government called on the new Taliban leader to end the war, or face dire consequences. “Latest developments offer Taliban groups opportunity to end violence and resume peaceful life; else they will face the fate of their leadership,” President Ashraf Ghani’s deputy spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi said in a tweet. 

The US, Pakistan and China have also been trying to get the militants to the negotiating table to end a conflict. — Reuters

Suicide bomber kills 11 in court minibus blast

A suicide bomber targeted a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul during morning rush hour today, killing 11 persons, Afghan and UN official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his explosives' vest as he walked by the vehicle in the western part of the city, said Najib Danish, the Interior Ministry's deputy spokesman. The minibus belonged to the judiciary department in neighboring Maidan Wardak province and was taking the workers there when it came under attack. AP