Haibatullah Akhunzada named new Taliban leader
Taliban named Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada as their new chief and confirmed the death of former leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a statement on Wednesday. This was the militant organisation's first acknowledgement of Mansour's death in an American airstrike in Pakistan last week. Mansour had been appointed under similar circumstances in July 2015 after Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar's death.