New Taliban leader calls for unity among insurgents

Former Taliban fighters
(Image credit: Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)

New Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor purportedly promised to continue the group's 14-year insurgency in audio released to journalists Saturday by a Taliban spokesman, The Associated Press reports.

"We should keep our unity, we must be united, our enemy will be happy in our separation," Mansoor purportedly said. "This is a big responsibly on us. This is not the work of one, two or three people. This is all our responsibility to carry on jihad until we establish the Islamic state."

The Afghan government announced Wednesday that the group's previous leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been dead since April 2013.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.