Afghan Taleban rally behind new leader

Kandahar - Many senior figures said his deputy-turned-successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, had deliberately misled them.

Afghanistan's Taleban are closing ranks around their new leader after months of infighting that followed the death of Mullah Mohammad Omar, which could allow the insurgents to speak with one voice in hoped-for peace talks but will also strengthen them on the battlefield.
The Afghan government's announcement last summer that Mullah Omar, the reclusive one-eyed founder of the group, had died two years earlier in Pakistan aggravated longtime rifts within the movement. Many senior figures said his deputy-turned-successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, had deliberately misled them.
The upheaval led to the collapse of Pakistan-brokered face-to-face talks between Kabul and the Taleban after just one round, and clashes flared between Mansoor loyalists and a splinter group led by Mullah Mohammed Rasool, which declared him the leader of the Taleban in November.
But Abdul Rauf, a Taleban commander close to Rasool, said senior Taleban figures who had objected to the rapid and secretive succession are now reluctantly returning to the fold. "We all took a stand against Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, but now one by one we are joining with him without demanding any changes," he said.
Relatives of Mullah Omar, notably his brother Manan and son Yaqub, had objected to the selection of Mansoor, which was done by a small inner circle of senior Taleban leaders. But they were persuaded last year to drop their objections and publicly declared their loyalty to Mansoor. - AP