The Taliban announced Wednesday that an extremist religious scholar with no military experience would take over the jihadist group after a U.S. drone strike killed its former leader.
The group called Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada the "natural choice" for the position and confirmed for the first time in a statement that their former head, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, had been killed last week.
Akhundzada was formerly the head of the Taliban’s court system and served as a senior deputy to Mansour.
The Taliban closed the door on speculation that the leadership change would move the group closer toward peace talks with the Afghan government and called on members to unite behind Akhundzada.
Analysts told CNN that Akhunzada’s appointment was intended to avert succession disputes, which could weaken the group’s assault on the government.
"The Taliban understood that they needed a new consensus leader, and quickly, to prevent what was possibly the aim of the U.S. and Afghan governments—to create turmoil around the succession," said Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.
But not all of the militant group’s members accepted their new leader.
The Associated Press reported:
Hours after the Taliban's statement on their new leader was made to the media, the head of a main dissident faction that broke away last year to protest Mansour's elevation said the group would not accept Akhundzada either.The breakaway faction, led by Mullah Mohammad Rasool, did not appear to object so much to Akhundzada as to the closed and undemocratic manner of the selection process by the council.
The Taliban also named Mullah Muhammad Yaqoub, the son of the group’s founder, and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the insurgency operations leaders, as deputies in its statement Wednesday.
Mansour headed the Taliban for a year, accelerating terrorist attacks under his leadership. He was killed Saturday after an American drone hit his vehicle in Pakistan.