New Taliban chief Akhundzada a scholar, not a soldier

KABUL: Religious scholar Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, named Wednesday as the Afghan Taliban’s new leader, was a senior judge during the insurgent group’s five-year rule over Afghanistan and issued many of its harsh verdicts.

Believed to be aged in his fifties, he hails from Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar like both his former boss -- Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike on Saturday -- and Taliban founder Mullah Omar, who died in 2013.