Afghan Taliban issues statement quoting leader of the Haqqani Network to prove he is alive

Newspapers hang for sale at a stand carrying headlines about the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015. The new leader of the Afghan Taliban vowed to continue his group's bloody, nearly 14-year insurgency in an audio message released Saturday, urging his fighters to remain unified after the death of their longtime leader. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) (The Associated Press)

Supporters of a Pakistani religious group, "Jamaat-ud-Dawa," offer funeral prayers for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar outside a mosque in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015. Afghanistan's Taliban on Thursday confirmed the death of Mullah Omar, who led the group's self-styled Islamic emirate in the 1990s, sheltered al-Qaida through the 9/11 attacks and led a 14-year insurgency against U.S. and NATO troops. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan) (The Associated Press)

The Afghan Taliban has issued a written statement purportedly quoting Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of the notoriously brutal Haqqani insurgent group, in an effort to quell rumors of his death.

The statement, posted Sunday to the Taliban's website, quoted Haqqani mourning the loss of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the one-eyed leader of the group whose death the extremists confirmed last week. The Afghan government says Mullah Omar died in April 2013.

The Taliban have announced that Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor is their new leader and released a purported audio statement from him Saturday. The statement released Sunday did not include any audio of Haqqani speaking to prove he is alive.

Rumors of Haqqani's death have circulated and been denied by militants for the past year.

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