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Agence France-Presse

Afghanistan’s Taliban on Tuesday announced key posts for their new government, after the hardline Islamists seized control of the country and ousted the previous regime last month.
Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who is on a UN sanctions list, was named as the acting prime minister.
Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar will be one deputy, as well as Abdul Salam Hanafi, who was most recently part of peace talks in Doha.
The Taliban’s inner workings and leadership have long been shrouded in secrecy – even when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Several cabinet posts are yet to be announced. Here is a rundown of what is known:

Mohammad Hassan Akhund, acting PM
Mullah Mohammed Hassan Akhund is a Taliban veteran who was a close associate and political adviser to Mullah Omar, the founder of the movement and its first supreme leader.
A member of the group’s Supreme Council, he served as deputy foreign minister in their previous regime, and was placed on a UN Security Council sanctions list connected to the “acts and activities” of the Taliban.
‘They destroyed everything’: the last CIA base in Afghanistan
From Kandahar, he also served as the Taliban governor of the key province.
The United Nations said he had a reputation of having been “one of the most effective Taliban commanders”.
Akhund is believed at least in his mid-60s and possibly older. A European Union sanctions notice puts him as old as 76.
“He is very old in age, he is the oldest person in (senior) Taliban ranks,” said a Taliban source.


Mullah Baradar, the co-founder
Abdul Ghani Baradar, named as deputy to Hassan, was raised in Kandahar – the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
Like most Afghans, Baradar’s life was forever altered by the Soviet invasion of the country in the late 1970s, transforming him into an insurgent.
He was believed to have fought side-by-side with the one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar.
The two would go on to found the Taliban movement in the early 1990s during the chaos and corruption of the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal.
Taliban claims capture of Panjshir, last holdout province
After the Taliban regime was toppled in 2001 by US-led forces, Baradar is believed to have been among a small group of insurgents who approached interim leader Hamid Karzai with a potential deal that would have seen the militants recognise the new administration.
Arrested in Pakistan in 2010, Baradar was kept in custody until pressure from the United States saw him freed in 2018 and relocated to Qatar.
This is where he was appointed head of the Taliban’s political office, and oversaw the signing of the troop withdrawal agreement with the United States.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, deputy
Abdul Salam Hanafi, who is also on a UN blacklist, was a deputy education minister when the Taliban were last in power, when they effectively blocked girls from school.
Hanafi was named as another deputy to Hassan.
A UN travel ban on Hanafi was lifted to allow him to take part in talks as part of the Taliban’s political negotiating team in Doha.
After the Islamists were ousted from Kabul in 2001, he was placed in charge of the Taliban-controlled northern Jawzjan province, bordering Uzbekistan.
The UN Security Council have also accused him of potential involvement in drug trafficking.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani network
The son of a famed commander from the anti-Soviet jihad, Sirajuddin Haqqani has doubled as the deputy leader of the Taliban and head of the powerful Haqqani network.
He will be interior minister in the new regime.
The US State Department’s Rewards For Justice Programme offers a multimillion dollar reward for information leading to his arrest.
The Haqqani network is a US-designated terror group long viewed as one of the most dangerous militant factions in Afghanistan.
It is infamous for its use of suicide bombers and is believed to have orchestrated some of the most high-profile attacks in Kabul over the years.
The network is also accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Western citizens for ransom – including US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, released in 2014.
Known for their independence, fighting acumen, and savvy business dealings, the Haqqanis are mainly based in eastern Afghanistan and hold considerable sway over the Taliban’s leadership council.
Mullah Yaqoob, the scion
The son of Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, Mullah Yaqoob heads the group’s powerful military commission, which oversaw the vast network of field commanders charged with executing the insurgency.
On Tuesday, he was named as defence minister.
Yaqoob’s father enjoyed cultlike status as the Taliban leader, and that potent lineage makes him a unifying figure in the movement.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Key players in the Taliban’s new Afghanistan government

Taliban flags next to a poster of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of Afghanistan’s interim deputy leaders. Photo: AFP

epa09454064 (FILE) - Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi, member of Taliban's Qatar political office, speaks to journalists in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 17 August 2021 (issued 07 September 2021).(reissued 07 September 2021). Taliban on 07 September announced interim government that will be led by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, with Sarajuddin Haqqani as the Interior Minister, Mullah Yaqoob as acting Defence Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi as acting Foreign Minister, and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi as two deputies of the Prime Minister. EPA-EFE/STRINGER

The 'Seeking Information' poster issued by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is Afghanistan's newly appointed acting interior minister. FBI/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 25, 1999 Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz receives his Afghan Taliban counterpart Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund (L) at an Air Force base in Rawalpindi, some 25 kilometers from Islamabad. - The Taliban announced Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund as the leader of their new government in Afghanistan on September 7, 2021. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Taliban announces new Afghanistan government with Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund as leader

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - An Afghan woman protester (3L) speaks with a member (R) of the Taliban during a protest in Herat on September 2, 2021. - Defiant Afghan women held a rare protest on September 2 saying they were willing to accept the all-encompassing burqa if their daughters could still go to school under Taliban rule. (Photo by - / AFP)

‘They destroyed everything’: the last CIA base in Afghanistan

A member of the Taliban special forces walks amid debris of the destroyed CIA base. Photo: AFP

TOPSHOT - A member of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit walks amid debris of the destroyed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in Deh Sabz district northeast of Kabul on September 6, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

TOPSHOT - Members of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit walk amid debris of the destroyed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in Deh Sabz district northeast of Kabul on September 6, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

Members of the Taliban Badri 313 military unit walk amid debris of the destroyed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in Deh Sabz district northeast of Kabul on September 6, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

Damaged and discarded vehicles parked near the destroyed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) base in Deh Sabz district northeast of Kabul on September 6, 2021 after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

Afghanistan: Taliban claims capture of Panjshir, last holdout province

An Afghan resistance fighter. Photo: AFP

Still frame from an undated video seen by Reuters shows people with guns next to Humvees adorned with the Taliban flag on the mountaintops close to Golbahar, near the southern entrance of Panjshir valley, Afghanistan. Video obtained from social media. ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2021, file photo, armored vehicles are seen in Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban said on Monday, Sept. 6, 2021, they have taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the Afghan capital. The province was the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their sweep last month. (AP Photo/Jalaluddin Sekandar)

Afghan resistance fighters in Dara district, Panjshir province. Photo: AFP

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PM is Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, aide to late Taliban founder
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Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who is on a UN sanctions list, was named as the acting prime minister.


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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} PM is Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, aide to late Taliban founder New interior minister’s Haqqani group on US terrorism list

PM is Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, aide to late Taliban founder

New interior minister’s Haqqani group on US terrorism list