KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Taliban confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and appointed his successor Thursday. Meanwhile, a new round of peace talks was indefinitely postponed on concerns over how committed the new leadership is to ending the militant group's 14-year insurgency.
The Afghan Taliban Shura, or Supreme Council, chose Omar's deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, as its new leader, two Taliban figures said, adding that the seven-member council had met in the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Mansoor is considered close to Pakistani authorities who hosted peace talks earlier this month.
Mansoor effectively has commanded the movement for the three years since Omar's previous deputy and co-founder of the movement, Mullah Abdul Baradar, was arrested by Pakistani authorities.
The peace process was plunged into uncertainty earlier Thursday when the Taliban indicated they were pulling out of the negotiations and Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced the talks, which were to have been hosted by Islamabad beginning today , had been postponed.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it was postponing the peace talks because of the "uncertainty" surrounding Omar's death and gave no new date for the negotiations, saying only that it hoped they would be held "in the near future."
The first round of the official, face-to-face discussions was hosted by Islamabad earlier this month. The meeting was supervised by U.S. and Chinese representatives and ended with both sides agreeing to meet again.
It was not immediately clear if the latest developments had scuttled the peace process altogether or whether it was just a serious setback.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until they were overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001. It is widely believed that Omar fled over the border to Pakistan, where he lived under Pakistani protection until his death.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has sought Pakistan's help in getting the Taliban to the negotiations since Islamabad is believed to wield influence over the group.
A diplomat based in Kabul who is familiar with the peace process said that since Ghani assumed power last year the government's position has been that "the real negotiation is between Afghanistan and Pakistan." The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing talks.
Despite operating in near-total secrecy, the one-eyed Omar had served as a unifying figure in the Taliban. But experts have long spoken of a divide in the movement between those who favor the peace process and those who still believe they can overthrow the government.
Analysts and diplomats said those divisions could hamper progress in the short term. Further splintering within the Taliban could see more local commanders defect to other extremist groups, such as the Islamic State, which has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria and is believed to have recruited some Taliban as it tries to establish a presence in Afghanistan.
The Taliban said Thursday that Omar's family had confirmed his death from an unspecified illness, though no time frame was given. In a statement emailed to the media, the Taliban quoted Omar's brother and one of his sons as asking for forgiveness for "mistakes" he made at the helm of the militant group.
The statement, issued in the name of Omar's brother, Mullah Abdul Manan, and his son, Mohammad Yaqub, came after the Afghan government announced Wednesday that Omar had died more than two years ago in a Pakistani hospital.
Senior Taliban figures also said Omar had died and his son, Yaqub, confirmed in a telephone call that his father was dead, but did not provide any further details.
In the statement, Omar's family praised his dedication to jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led coalition and said it was the "duty of all Muslims" to follow his example by establishing Shariah law in Afghanistan. They also maintained Omar never left Afghanistan after his government was toppled in 2001 -- an assertion that contradicts the widespread belief that he fled to Pakistan, where he received refuge as he led the insurgency for a number of years.
"During 14 years of jihad against the U.S., Mullah Omar never left Afghanistan for one day, even to go to Pakistan or to any other country," the statement said, adding that he remained in Afghanistan through two weeks of serious illness before passing away. It provided no details.
After Mansoor's selection, the Taliban chose Sirajuddin Haqqani as its new deputy leader, the Taliban sources said. Haqqani has a U.S. bounty of $10 million on his head as a leader of the brutal and extremist Haqqani network, which is allied with al-Qaida.
His election to the leadership of the Afghan Taliban confirms the group's ties to the Haqqani network, which has been accused of staging numerous cross-border attacks from its base in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, including a 19-hour siege at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in September 2011.
Information for this article was contributed by Humayoon Babur and Asif Shahzad of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/31/2015