In an audio message posted online Thursday, a man purported to
be al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri pledges allegiance to new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar
Mohammad Mansour.
"As a
leader of al Qaeda jihadi group, we announce our allegiance to you," the
voice says in the message.
CNN couldn't independently
verify the message's authenticity.
The Taliban, the
Sunni Islamist group that took over much of Afghanistan in the 1990s, named
Mansour its leader last month after confirming its previous leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, was dead.
A U.S.-led 2001
invasion booted the Taliban from power after it offered safe haven to al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden, but a Taliban insurgency continues in Afghanistan to
this day.
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