Taliban reshuffles leadership as inter-Afghan talks with Kabul loom

The Taliban has put the son of the movement’s founder in charge of its military wing and added powerful figures to its negotiating team ahead of expected talks with the government in Kabul aimed at ending Afghanistan’s decades of war, officials say. Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, 30, will head a newly united military wing, in one of the most significant shake-ups in years.

Four members of the insurgent group’s leadership council were added to the 20-member negotiating team, Taliban officials told AP.

The reshuffle, overseen by Taliban leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhunzada, is intended to tighten his control over the movement’s military and political arms, according to sources.

The US signed a deal with the Taliban on February 29, which was described as a road map for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war.