Taliban name negotiating team

The Taliban have announced a 14-member negotiating team ahead of talks this month with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been meeting with the insurgents to try to end US’ longest war. The team includes five former inmates of the US prison in Guantanamo Bay who were released in 2014 in exchange for a captured US soldier. The team also includes Anas Haqqani, the jailed younger brother of the leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction. Taliban spokesman said Haqqani, who is being held in Kabul, “should be released to start work on the negotiating team”.