Afghan Taliban appoint Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as new leader
BBC, quoting a statement issued by the Taliban, said, "the Taliban acknowledged Mansour's death for the first time and named his successor as Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada."
CNN International too quoted a Taliban statement that said, "The Islamic Emirate's leadership council... decided to appoint Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate and Mawlawi Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob as his deputies."
Little is known about the leader except that Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada is a religious scholar and former head of the Taliban courts, and known for announcing many of the 'fatwas', media reported.
Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur was killed in an air-strike on Saturday in Pakistan confirmed the US and the Afghanistan governments on Monday.
"We have removed the leader of an organization that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups," US President Obama said in a statement on Monday.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
