A Taliban co-founder who rose through the ranks thanks to a series of assassinations or arrests is leading the terror group's peace talks as major Afghan cities fall.
With Afghanistan on the brink of collapse, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was freed from jail at the request of the US in 2018, has been tipped to become president of a Taliban government.
Insurgents from the Islamist group took over the capital Kabul, as countries evacuated diplomats from their embassies, following lightning advances in other regions.
The Taliban accelerated its campaign after US-led forces withdrew the bulk of their remaining troops in July, and the Afghan's military defences appeared to collapse.
The Taliban, which gave refuge to 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, have been fighting an insurgency against the Western-backed government in Kabul since being ousted from power in 2001.
Who is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar?
Interpol has said Baradar was born in the village of Weetmak in Uruzgan province in 1968, which would make him about 53 years old today.
He is known as Mullah Baradar, meaning brother, due to close ties with the late Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, his friend and brother-in-law.
Baradar became battle-hardened while fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s alongside Omar.
Baradar later helped his former commander found the Taliban in 1994 and establish its previous rule over Afghanistan. Omar went into hiding after the US invasion and is reported to have died from tuberculosis in 2013.
Baradar is married to Omar's sister, an Afghan official previously told the BBC.
During Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, Baradar was said to have served as governor of two provinces, a top army commander and deputy minister of defence.
After US-led forces invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, he became a linchpin of the insurgency as a day-to-day commander and military strategist.
Formerly a number two of the Taliban, he fled to Pakistan and took on a more prominent role as Omar's health failed.
Baradar told Newsweek in 2009: "The history of Afghanistan shows that Afghans never get tired of struggling until they have freed their country. We shall continue our jihad till the expulsion of our enemy from our land."
As senior leaders were assassinated or captured, Baradar became head of the Taliban's Quetta Shura militant organisation and de facto leader of the terrorist group.
In 2010, he was arrested by security forces in Karachi, Pakistan in an operation that many thought could bring the insurgency to its knees.
It was thought he favoured peace talks with the US and Afghan government.
An Afghan official told the BBC at the time: "His wife is Mullah Omar's sister. He controlled the money. He was launching some of the deadliest attacks against our security forces."
Baradar was released in October 2018 at the request of the US to participate in peace talks. His release reportedly following secret talks between the Taliban and American officials in Afghanistan.
He moved back to Afghanistan and reasserted his authority with the Taliban.
He now heads the group's political office and is part of the negotiating team that it sent to Doha, Qatar to try and thrash out a political deal that could pave the way for a ceasefire and more lasting peace in Afghanistan.
The process has failed to make significant headway in recent months.
