Where are the Taliban's missing leaders? Rumors swirl over fate of two top officials
CNN
The Taliban's leaders are rarely seen at public events and do not readily grant interviews or hold news conferences. Many of them move in the shadows, their whereabouts unknown, inevitably generating rumors about their health and about possible internal disagreements.
Those rumors gained so much traction in recent days that the Taliban's spokesmen have been forced to fend off questions about whether one of the most prominent figures in the group, Mullah Baradar, was injured or even killed in a dispute in Kabul in the past week with the powerful Haqqani network, which holds key positions in the interim government.
Similarly, Taliban officials have repeatedly said that the movement's supreme leader and commander-in-chief, Haibatullah Akhundzada, would soon make a public appearance. He hasn't -- fueling rumors that he is sick or even dead.
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