To outsiders, radicals may appear homogeneous and united on all ideological and strategic matters.
But like any other large political organization, the decades-old Islamic group has its own divisions, rivalries, allies and factions.
The cracks were largely kept in check during a 20-year effort to defeat US-led foreign troops and a Kabul government widely described as corrupt.
The group’s divisions are coming into sharp relief, with the defeat of that common enemy in just a few weeks under Taliban rule.
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On Monday, there were rumors that the co-founder and now the deputy prime minister had been killed in a shootout between rival factions in the presidential palace. Abdul Ghani Baradari He was forced to issue an audio message saying that he was still alive.
Earlier, the naming of an interim government exposed the group’s political tensions and may have sown the seeds for future troubles. niamatullah ibrahimi, Afghanistan expert from Australia La Trobe University.
Key roles among the Taliban’s old defenders were divided between their spiritual birthplace Kandahar – including Baradar – and the Haqqani, a family-based group with ties to al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
Under the first Taliban regime in the 1990s, the Kandahar faction was dominant – but many of the group’s recent military successes have been down to the Haqqanis.
“We really shouldn’t underestimate the power of Haqqani,” Ibrahimi says.
“They have been a more sophisticated part of the movement militarily, maintaining important links with al-Qaeda and Pakistan. ISI, but it also has its own distinct power base in Afghanistan.”
family descendant Sirajuddin Haqqani — branded a terrorist by the United States and targeting a $10 million bounty for his arrest — took control of the Interior Ministry, which would set the tone for the Taliban regime.
According to Graeme Smith, a senior advisor at International Crisis Group, he is a “natural choice” for the role.
“It organized some of the Taliban’s most elite combat units,” he says.
But Haqqani’s appointment has made it even more difficult for Western governments to recognize the Taliban government or release frozen Afghanistan’s central bank reserves to the United States.
The failure to secure that money and foreign acceptance could be seen as a blow to Baradar, a key player in negotiations with the West leading to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Without foreign recognition, the Taliban will be hard pressed to manage what the United Nations has called an “economic crisis” in Afghanistan and an imminent “humanitarian disaster”.
Experts say the rivalry between the factions could create further problems with Afghanistan’s neighbours.
Outsiders from western Afghanistan and Taliban groups, including links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, were largely excluded from the government.
“The Taliban have decided against an inclusive cabinet, ignoring requests from prominent Afghan politicians and regional states to include non-Taliban figures in their senior ranks,” Smith says.
“This is good for Taliban solidarity, and will appeal to Taliban supporters, but risks alienating other Afghans and the international community.”
Ibrahimi says regional powers such as Iran or Russia may very well return to funding proxy groups to protect their interests.
It is “a recipe for violent conflict or resistance by others,” he says.
“(It) creates opportunities for exploitation by regional powers which are not going to be happy with them.”
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