al-Qaeda globalleader renews allegiance with old ally

KABUL, Afghanistan — The leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, broke nearly a year of radio silence on Thursday to pledge allegiance to the new leader of the Taliban, but his audio message made no mention of the Taliban’s two-year delay in acknowledging that their former leader was dead. Mr. Zawahri’s message came in an audio recording attached to a Twitter message, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, a terrorist monitoring organization, which said it was an unusual way for him to distribute messages. Mr. Zawahri, a 64-year-old Egyptian, took over Al Qaeda after American commandos killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, but he has not had any confirmed audio or video communications since September. SITE said the voice on the new audio message, which acknowledged that the Taliban had chosen Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour as their new leader to replace the deceased Mullah Muhammad Omar, sounded like that of Mr. Zawahri. But it did little to dispel speculation, even among some fellow jihadists, that the Qaeda leader was himself dead. Leaders of extremist groups involved in the Afghan war have undermined their credibility among many followers after news emerged that senior figures have been dead for months or even years. In addition to Mullah Omar, who died in April 2013, an ally, Jalaluddin Haqqani, head of the extremist Haqqani network, reportedly died in December, but the group continues to deny that. “We pledge allegiance to you,” said the purported message from Mr. Zawahri to Mullah Mansour. “Allah has honored you and honored our emir, the emir of the believers, Mullah Muhammad Omar. May Allah have mercy on him.” The message did not acknowledge that Mullah Omar had been dead for two years, during which his followers, and especially Mullah Mansour, disseminated dozens of messages in his name and insisted that he was alive. The Qaeda leader had earlier, in 2014, pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar, who had been dead at that point for more than a year. Similarly, many have questioned whether Mr. Zawahri himself is alive. Although analysts said the voice on the message sounded liked Mr. Zawahri’s, there is no proof. Since Mullah Mansour’s selection as the successor to Mullah Omar, the Taliban have been rived by dissension, with key figures disputing his right to assume leadership, favoring Mullah Omar’s oldest son, Yaqoub. Jihadists with the Islamic State have derided both Mullah Omar and Mr. Zawahri as posthumous leaders with no more relevance in the extremist world. Many jihadists have noted that Mr. Zawahri has made little comment on the deaths of major Qaeda figures over the past year, raising questions as to whether he is really engaged in their movement — or is even alive. Patrick Skinner, an intelligence analyst with The Soufan Group, interviewed recently on WTOP radio in Washington, cited a series of Twitter messages from an Islamic State commander named Muhammad Mahmoud after news came July 30 that Mullah Omar was dead. “Here is the next bombshell, Zawahiri has long been dead and Al Qaeda is concealing this The New York Times