Rift over new Taliban chief

KABUL, Afghanistan - The first signs of the deep fractures within the Afghan Taliban surfaced on Friday as the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar rejected the choice of his successor, just hours after the group issued a statement praising its new leader as one of the late chief's most "trusted" associates.

Mullah Yacoob, Omar's oldest son, said he and three other senior leaders had walked out of a meeting called to elect a new leader, and were now demanding a wider vote.

"I am against the decision to select Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as leader," Yacoob told the Associated Press, revealing the fault lines at the top of the insurgent group a day after it confirmed the death of Omar and announced the new leadership lineup.

In a statement likely aimed at rallying followers behind the leadership, the Taliban statement, which was e-mailed to the AP, said the group's new leader, Mullah Mohammad Akhtar Mansoor, had also been given the title of "Commander of the Faithful," conferring on him the supreme status held by Omar.

Mansoor has been an "active director" of the jihad, or holy war, for some years, it added. The statement did not give any details of when Omar died or from what illness.

On the ground, the insurgency continued with Afghan officials saying the Taliban had blown up a major bridge connecting two districts of Kunduz province the previous day, fought gun battles with police and been run out of another district when residents took up arms against it.

Afghan forces also retook control Friday of Naw Zad district in Helmand province after three days of fierce fighting with the Taliban, the officials said.

The Taliban on Thursday confirmed that Omar had died of an illness some time ago and said it elected Mansoor as his successor. The Afghan government announced Wednesday that the reclusive mullah had been dead since April 2013.

Omar was the one-eyed, secretive head of the Taliban, whose group hosted Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda in the years leading up to the 9/11 attacks.