Not dead yet: Taliban leader Mansoor ‘releases audio to prove he’s still alive’

Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor has released a rare audio recording in which he denies claims by an Afghan official that he was wounded in a shootout during a meeting with other commanders in Pakistan last week. In a 17-minute audio recording sent to media by the Taliban, Mansoor dismissed what he called “baseless claims” that were “part of the agenda of the enemy”. “I haven’t seen Kuchlak in years,” he said, referring to an area near the Pakistani city of Quetta where the dispute was said to have taken place. The voice resembled that in previous recordings issued by Mansoor, who succeeded long-time Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar after his death was announced last summer.

I am safe and my colleagues are safe. I am among my colleagues.

Mullah Mansoor in the recording

He ordered his fighters to pay no heed to “baseless rumors” and to continue waging jihad, or holy war, against the Afghan government. Mansoor established the timing of the recording by referring to a battle between Afghan forces and the Taliban in Wardak province on Friday which killed a number of civilians. The audio message was released two days after Sultan Faizy, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s First Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dostum, claimed that Mansoor was wounded in a firefight that broke out at a gathering of Taliban figures in Pakistan.