The Long War Journal (Site-Wide)

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• New Taliban emir accepts al Qaeda’s oath of allegiance
• Full statement of Mullah Mansour accepting al Qaeda’s oath of allegiance
• Mokhtar Belmokhtar now leads ‘Al Qaeda in West Africa’

New Taliban emir accepts al Qaeda’s oath of allegiance Posted: 14 Aug 2015 07:17 AM PDT The Taliban's new emir, Mullah Mansour, has publicly accepted Ayman al Zawahiri's oath of allegiance. The public acceptance of Zawahiri’s pledge demonstrates that Mansour has no intention of breaking with al Qaeda.

Full statement of Mullah Mansour accepting al Qaeda’s oath of allegiance Posted: 14 Aug 2015 07:05 AM PDT The full text of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour's statement, entitled "New Amir of Islamic Emirate thanks and accepts all who pledged allegiance."

Mokhtar Belmokhtar now leads ‘Al Qaeda in West Africa’ Posted: 13 Aug 2015 10:31 AM PDT A statement released online today confirms that Mokhtar Belmokhtar is now the emir of Al Murabitoon, which calls itself "Al Qaeda in West Africa." Another Al Murabitoon emerged in Egypt last month and it is also loyal to al Qaeda.