The Taliban has raised their flag after they take control of the Helmand district in Afghanistan. Afghan soldiers bailed out and the Taliban has seized military gear supplied to the Afghanistan forces after killing 40 Afghan soldiers and police.
Sharia will be imposed and wield deeper power in the region.
After the official declaration of the deal of Mullah Omar was announced, the Taliban leadership was fractured due to a sense of betrayal. During many tribal meetings, it was soon announced that Mullah Akhtar Mansour would be the new leader.
Omar
Mansour
Ayman al Zawahiri, who took control of al Qaeda after the death of Usama bin Ladin made a declaration of pledge and cooperation with Akhtar Mansour where new threats against America have been officially broadcasted.
al Zawahiri has been thought to be hiding in the Pakistan border region and recently produced an audio raising news fears in the region. Additionally, while there have been several attempts at peace talks with the Afghanistan government, the Taliban is now formally opposed.
In part from Reuters: The swift announcement that Mansour, Omar’s longtime deputy, would be the new leader has riled many senior Taliban figures, and Omar’s family said this month that it did not endorse the move.
Mansour’s position could be shored up by the vote of confidence by al Qaeda, the global militant group that has maintained ties with the Taliban for almost two decades since the tenure of its founder and late leader Osama bin Laden.
“As leader of the al Qaeda organization for jihad, I offer our pledge of allegiance, renewing the path of Sheikh Osama and the devoted martyrs in their pledge to the commander of the faithful, the holy warrior Mullah Omar,” Zawahiri added.
Reiterating support for the Taliban is also a tacit rejection of Islamic State, the new ultra-radical Sunni Muslim movement that is ensconced in Iraq and Syria and has gained the support of a few Afghan insurgent commanders.
Al Qaeda is being challenged by Islamic State for leadership of the global jihadist movement, as determined backers of IS have cropped up in Libya and Yemen this year.
Al Qaeda was set up by Arab guerrillas who flocked to Afghanistan to fight Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s. It thrived under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion that followed Al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington drove both groups underground.
