Rift at top of the Taliban: BBC reveals clash of wills behind internet shutdown (BBC)

It was a piece of audio obtained by the BBC that revealed what worries the Taliban’s leader most. Not an external danger, but one from within Afghanistan, which the Taliban seized control of as the previous government collapsed and the US withdrew in 2021. He warned of “insiders in the government” pitted against each other in the Islamic Emirate the Taliban set up to govern the country. In the leaked clip, the supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada can be heard giving a speech saying that internal disagreements could eventually bring them all down. “As a result of these divisions, the emirate will collapse and end,” he warned.

The Taliban rift at the top of the leadership in Afghanistan