Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has appointed Abdul Ahad Talib, known as Mawlawi Talib, as the commander of his own special forces unit, Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid announced on X platform on Monday.
Talib was one of the 5,000 Taliban prisoners released in September 2020 by then-President Ashraf Ghani as part of the Doha Agreement between the United States and the Taliban signed in February of that year.
Upon his release, Talib returned to the battlefield and oversaw an aggressive assault against national security forces in early August 2021 that led to the takeover of the provincial capital Lashkargah. On August 15, the Taliban took complete control of the country, marking the collapse of the Kabul government amidst the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops.
After the Taliban’s return to power, he initially served as the group’s governor for Helmand province, strictly enforcing the Taliban’s draconian laws, particularly against women and girls. Later, Akhundzada appointed him as head of the Omari Suicide Corps, the units that carried out hundreds of deadly suicide attacks targeting civilians, security forces, and foreign troops during the Taliban’s insurgency against the former government.
The appointment of Talib as the commander of Akhunzada’s special forces comes amid mounting reports of internal rifts within the Taliban leadership.
UN Security Council’s Monitoring report in June said that the Taliban’s supreme leader has intensified security measures around him in Kandahar, where he is surrounded by hardliner loyalists after the group’s Interior Ministry Sirajuddin Haqqani publicly criticized his authority.
“Since Sirajuddin’s speech, Hibatullah further heightened his own security in Kandahar, removing Ministry of Interior and General Directorate of Intelligence personnel from his bodyguard. Already limited access to Hibatullah has become even more tightly controlled. Martyrdom (suicide) units recently formed to fight ISIL-K have been relocated to Kandahar,” the report said.
The creation of a new special forces unit in Kandahar could mean more substantial rifts between the intransigent supreme leader and more politically oriented leaders in Kabul. Yet, the move itself could potentially increase divisions by bolstering competition over authority in the security sector.
