Afghanistan: Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar to lead new government as fighting intensifies in holdout Panjsher Valley
- Haibatullah Akhunzada, the group’s supreme leader, will focus on religious matters and governance within the framework of Islam
- The new administration’s most immediate priority should be to stave off the collapse of an economy grappling with drought
The new government’s most immediate priority, however, should be to stave off the collapse of an economy grappling with drought and the ravages of a conflict that killed an estimated 240,000 Afghans.
Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office, will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in senior positions in the government, three sources said.
“All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where preparations are in final stages to announce the new government,” one Taliban official said on condition of anonymity.
Haibatullah Akhunzada, the Taliban’s supreme religious leader, will focus on religious matters and governance within the framework of Islam, another Taliban source said.
The Taliban, which seized Kabul on August 15 after sweeping across most of the country, have faced resistance in the Panjsher Valley, where there have been reports of heavy fighting and casualties.
Several thousand fighters of regional militias and remnants of the government’s armed forces have massed in the rugged valley under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, the son of former mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.