Taliban leader in Kabul to hold talks with political leadership

Al-Jazeera quoting the Associated Press news agency said that the news was confirmed by an official who wished to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Muttaqi has served as the higher education minister when the Taliban last ruled and he began making contacts with Afghan political leaders even before Afghan President Ashraf Ghani secretly slipped away from the Presidential Palace on the weekend.

The official said that the talks under way in the Afghan capital are aimed at bringing other non-Taliban leaders into the government that Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said will be an “inclusive Afghan government”.

Afghans familiar with the talks say some sessions have gone late into the night and have been under way since soon after Ghani’s departure.

The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan over, after its fighters swept into the capital, Kabul, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Taliban fighters patrolled the streets of Kabul on Monday as thousands of Afghans mobbed the city’s airport trying to flee the group’s feared hardline brand of rule.

In addition, scores of Afghans ran alongside a US military plane and several clung to the side as the jet took off.

As per senior US military officials, the chaos left seven dead, including several who fell from the flight.