New Audio Message Suggests Closer al Qaida-Taliban Alliance

Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appears to have pledged the group’s loyalty to the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, a move that could strengthen both terror organizations as they fend off challenges from Islamic State.

“We pledge our allegiance … [to the] commander of the faithful, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansour, may God protect him,” said Zawahiri during a 10-minute recording that surfaced on the Internet Thursday.

U.S. counterterrorism officials are still studying the message but said there was “no reason to believe it is not authentic.”  Private analysts said the recording bears similarities to other messages attributed to Zawahiri, but it was released with more speed than usual.

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“In al-Qaida’s world, especially in Zawahiri’s world, they’re very deliberative,” said Thomas Joscelyn, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior editor of The Long War Journal. “They go through a very rigorous sharia process to figure out how to handle these types of matters.”

Afghan officials announced the death of former Taliban leader Mullah Omar late last month, with Taliban officials confirming it on July 31.  Joscelyn said this recording appeared to have been made just one day later, on August 1.

“It suggests to me that they basically knew about this beforehand and were planning on pledging allegiance to Mansour as soon as Omar’s death was announced,” he said.

But some analysts say they are surprised that Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have not done more to capitalize on the death of former Taliban leader Omar, especially after Afghan officials alleged he died two years ago.

“If that’s true, then that means al-Qaida throughout its rivalry with the Islamic State has basically been reaffirming its allegiance to a corpse,” said the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Joscelyn.

“Curiously, we haven’t heard from Baghdadi, or his spokesman [Abu Muhammad al-Adnani] after Mullah Omar’s death,” Joscelyn said. “You would think Islamic State would want to beat al-Qaida to the punch.”

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