The Taliban leader, in an order published Tuesday, appointed four senior Taliban commanders to new military posts, continuing a pattern of personnel rotations that has defined his approach to leadership over the past nearly five years.
According to a Taliban statement, Abdul Wakil Munib, the deputy commander of the Taliban’s 209th Al Fatha Corps, has been appointed commander of the 219th Omar Sani Division. Azizullah Haqyar, who had been the commander of the Taliban’s 219th Omar Sani Division, was named deputy commander of the 209th Al Fatha Corps.
Under the same announcement, Ghulamullah, the commander of the 11th Border Brigade of the 209th Al Fatha Corps in the northern province of Balkh, was appointed deputy commander of the 219th Omar Sani Division.
Meanwhile, Abdul Wasel Nazari, the deputy commander of the 219th Omar Sani Division, was named commander of the 11th Border Brigade of the 209th Al Fatha Corps.
The Taliban did not offer an explanation for the reshuffle or its purpose.
The latest changes follow a pattern that has defined nearly all of Akhundzada’s personnel decisions over nearly past five years: senior figures are rotated among existing posts rather than replaced by new appointees, a practice that has kept power concentrated among a narrow circle of trusted commanders since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
That concentration extends well beyond the military. A report by the Middle East Institute found that more than 90 percent of senior positions across the Taliban’s military and civilian institutions are held by members of a single ethnic group, and by men who belong to the Taliban itself. No woman has been given a role in the Taliban cabinet.
