The Afghan Taliban confirmed the death of leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a U.S. airstrike last week and named Haibatullah Akhundzada, the group's chief justice as his replacement.<br />Akhundzada, a prominent religious scholar and deputy to the killed leader, will head the militant movement, which has been in disarray since its founder, Mullah Omar, was proclaimed dead last summer.<br />Mansour was killed Saturday in a U.S. airstrike in southwest Pakistan — the first time since the beginning of the Afghan war that the United States had directly targeted a Taliban leader.
