According to Afghan media reports, a CNN-published a newsletter last month that reads "The top leader of the Afghan Taliban has been confirmed dead" received hundreds of millions of views around the world. The protagonist of the incident is the Taliban leader Ahunzada, who forced the US military to retreat in Kabul some time ago, who succeeded Mansour, who died in the US bombing, as the de facto controller, and then disappeared from global vision. According to US media reports, Ahunzada's last appearance was five years ago, and his photos have not been updated, and many people suspect that he has died a long time ago.
But CNN was the first to turn "suspected death" into "Taliban proven." The article conclusively stated that Ahunzada had been killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan last year, provided by more than one of their top officials who had been in contact with the Taliban. This authoritative news has made the official websites of many countries change Akhonzada to the status of "deceased", and there have been many rumors before this year that he has died, some saying that he died of new crown pneumonia, car accidents, other diseases, etc., but none of them are as convincing as this time. At this time, the Taliban government spokesman Mujahid clarified to the media that Akhonzada was still alive and living in Kandahar province, and he did not understand what those who were spreading rumors were going to do.
Yesterday morning, Akhonzada, the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, was confirmed to have appeared more than a dozen hours ago at a religious school in the southern city of Kandahar and delivered a speech. It was also his first appearance in nearly six years, with the aim of visiting the school and giving an encouraging speech to its students, in effect to prove to the outside world that he was not dead. To be on the safe side, Akhonzada did not allow those present to take videos and photos during the visit, and banned all personnel from using their mobile phones, and many said they did see him.
At this point, CNN's rumors are self-defeating, but it is not known whether they deliberately fabricated the news or the two "authoritative figures" found that are unreliable. Since yesterday afternoon, there has been a chain reaction on the websites of various countries around the world, and the message of Akhonzada's death has been removed one after another, but the US TV and Cable News Network has acted very embarrassed, they forwarded the message, and the previous manuscript they wrote has not been deleted. However, there are still some small foreign TELEVISION stations that say that they have not seen his latest photos, and there is no exact trajectory of activities to prove that Ahonzada is still alive, they still believe that the previous death is true, and now Akhonzada, who has not been leaked out of a photo, is a political conspiracy, and they are trying to achieve political goals through the identity of the supreme leader.
It is also worth mentioning why is it so important that Akhonzada dies or not? Someone left a message saying that he was just a religious leader, even if he died and then elected another person. In this regard, people familiar with the matter in Afghanistan explained that this matter is very complicated to say, and the most crucial thing is that it involves the issue of factional struggle within the regime; when a fully functional government has not yet been formed, the internal tilt is very strong, there are many factions, and the political views on what kind of country to form are also different, and if the supreme leader who can organize them is confirmed to be dead, the government is in danger of falling into division.