Who are Taliban’s key leaders in Afghanistan?

Six important figures lead the Taliban movement that has been fighting the Western-backed government since 2001.

The Taliban has been fighting the Western-backed Afghan government in Kabul since it was removed from power in 2001. It originally drew members from so-called “mujahideen” fighters who, with support from the United States, repelled Soviet forces in the 1980s. The group emerged in 1994 as one of the factions fighting a civil war and went on to control most of the country by 1996, when it imposed Sharia, or Islamic laws.