Afghan Taliban appoints new leader

Agencies on Wednesday quoted the Taliban spokesman as saying that Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Yaqoob have been appointed as new deputy leaders.

The announcement followed confirmation on Monday by US president Barack Obama that Mansoor was killed in a US strike in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

Mansoor was chosen to head the Afghan Taliban last summer after it was announced that the group's longtime leader Mullah Omar had died two years earlier.

"He is not a new man in Taliban leadership; he was the second deputy of Mullah Mansoor," an Aljazeera correspondent in Kabul said, referring to Akhunzada. "He is very respected. He's an old man, definitely older than Mullah Omar, who referred to him [Akhunzada] as his teacher.”

The correspondent added that Akhunzada had held the role of chief justice within the group previously. 

"He was very active, and a senior member of the Quetta Shura."

The Taliban is the most powerful armed group in Afghanistan, where an estimated 11,000 civilians were killed or wounded and 5,500 government troops and police officers died last year alone.

It seized power in 1996 and ruled Afghanistan until it was toppled by a US-led invasion after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.