An 11-member team of Afghan politicians are expected to travel to Doha by the end of this week for talks with the Taliban, sources said.  
 
Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai, Yunus Qanooni, Karim Khalili, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Salam Rahimi, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Sayed Sadat Mansoor Naderi, Enayatullah Baligh and Fatima Gailani are part of the team, sources said.

As most of the northern provinces are witnessing heavy clashes between government forces and the Taliban, President Ghani said during a visit to Balkh province that "the Taliban’s backbone will be broken" and all areas captured by the group will be retaken soon.

President Ghani visited Balkh province on Tuesday to review the northern provinces' security situation and said that the security situation across the country will improve significantly in the next three months.