# List of Taliban insurgency leaders

This is a list of Taliban leaders during the insurgency from 2001 to 2021.

## Supreme leaders

| Name | Situation |
| Mullah Omar | The founder & spiritual leader, who lived in hiding near a U.S. base in southern Afghanistan until his death. Died on 23 April 2013 of tuberculosis. His death was kept secret by the Taliban officials for two years until it was revealed in July 2015 by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security. |
| Akhtar Mansour | Elected July 2014. Killed in a U.S. drone strike in May 2016 in Pakistan. |
| Hibatullah Akhundzada | Elected May 2016 a few days after the US drone killed his predecessor. Became the ruler of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 after 2021 Taliban offensive and Fall of Kabul (2021) |

## Deputies and ministers

| Name | Position | Situation |
| Abdul Ghani Baradar | Governor of Herat and Nimruz Province | One of the founders of the Taliban along with Omar Said to be the Deputy leader of the Taliban Captured by Pakistani forces in 2010 and released at the request of the United States government in 2018 |
| Obaidullah Akhund | Minister of Defense | Senior leader Captured by Pakistani forces late February 2007 and died of heart disease in a Pakistan prison in 2010 |
| Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil | Foreign Minister | The last Foreign Minister in the Taliban government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Surrendered to Northern Alliance troops in Kandahar, 2001 |
| Abdul Rahman Zahed | Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs | Allegedly created an impression that he entered Pakistan after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, but had returned before the end of 2001 to his home village in Loghar province; at large Reported to be a leader in the Taliban's Quetta Shura Reported captured in late February 2010 |
| Mohammad Hassan Akhund | First Deputy Council of Ministers | At large; spoke to Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location on May 4, 2003 Reported to be a leader in the Taliban's Quetta Shura. Reported captured in late February 2010. |
| Mohammad Nabi Omari | Minister of Communications | Was the Taliban's chief of communications Listed as a member of the Taliban leadership. |
| Abdul Razaq | Commerce Minister | Afghan forces captured Razaq while scouring a rugged mountainous region north of Kandahar, April 1, 2003. Razaq's son, Abdul, had been killed on September 5, 2002 as he tried to shoot President Hamid Karzai. Abdul Razaq testified he had merely started out as a civilian, conscripted into Afghanistan's civil service by the Pakistan who was promoted to Commerce Minister, without ever becoming a member of the Taliban. He testified he had taken advantage of an amnesty Karzai offered when the Taliban fell, and had not been involved in politics since the fall of the Taliban. |
| Khaksar Akhund | Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs | Staged a public press conference in Kabul, late November, 2001 and denounced the Taliban; by August 2002, he supports the U.S.-backed Afghan government of Hamid Karzai; Assassinated by Taliban in 2006. |
| Qari Ahmadullah | Minister of Security (Intelligence) | Supposedly killed in late December 2001 by a United States bombing raid in the Paktia province. 12 years after the incident, an investigation by Harper's Weekly alleged that Ahmadullah is alive. |
| Abdul Haq Wasiq | Deputy Minister of Intelligence | Served as Deputy Minister of Intelligence in the Taliban Intelligence Service. Served as acting Minister of Intelligence when Qari Ahmadullah was away from Kabul performing his duties as governor of Tahar province. Arrived at the Guantanamo detention camps on January 11, 2002, and he was held there until 31 May 2014. |
| Nooruddin Turabi | Minister of Justice | Allegedly sheltered in Quetta by Pakistani officials by the end of 2001; captured by United States forces and then set free and given general amnesty in early January 2002 |
| Amir Khan Muttaqi | Minister of Culture & Information | Allegedly moved to Peshawar, Pakistan before the end of 2001 and still "hiding out in the Pakistani frontier" March 19, 2002; |
| Ghausuddin | | Killed in a gun battle in Zabul province, May 27, 2003 |
| Abbas Akhund | Minister of Health | In February 2002, he was "hiding with his military force about 5 miles from Uruzgan village"; at large |
| Abdul Raqib | First Deputy Council of Ministers | Unknown (is he the same Abdul Raqib as the official from the agriculture department in 2003?) |

## Governors

Governors :
| Name | Position | Situation |
| Abdul Kabir | Governor of Nangarhar Province | Head of Eastern Zone; (also see above) Allegedly moved to Peshawar, Pakistan before the end of 2001 Reported to be a leader of the Taliban's Quetta Shura. Reported captured February 20, 2010, in Nowshehra. Later released. |
| Khairullah Khairkhwa | Governor of Herat Province and Minister of the Interior | One of the original Taliban members who launched the movement in 1994. Former Governor of Herat Province He was directly associated with Taliban Supreme Commander Omar. |
| Norullah Noori | Governor of Balkh Province | Head of Northern Zone Former Governor of Balkh Province. In December 2001, he was captured and known to be in Mazar-I Sharif in the custody of Afghan Northern Alliance commander Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum; Has been held in Guantanamo since its opening. Guantanamo analysts alleged he had been the chief bodyguard for the "Governor of Mazari Sharif" [sic], and had served as the acting governor in his absence. |
| Na'im Kucki | Governor of Bamyan Province | A tribal leader of the Kuchi people. Former Minister of Tribal Affairs. Held in Guantanamo for several years. |
| Ahmad Jan | Governor of Zabul Province | Sanctioned by the United Nations in 2000. Reported to be a leader in the Taliban's Quetta Shura. Reported captured in late February 2010. |
| Mohammad Hasan Rahmani | Governor of Kandahar Province | Reported to be a leader in the Taliban's Quetta Shura. Reported captured in late February 2010. |
| Mir Muhammad | Shadow Governor of Baghlan Province in 2010 | Reported to be a leader in the Taliban's Quetta Shura. Reported captured in late February 2010. |
| Abdul Salam | Shadow Governor of Kunduz Province in 2010 | Reported to be a leader in the Taliban's Quetta Shura. Reported captured in late February 2010. |
| Abdul Salaam Alizai | Governor of Oruzgan Province in the 1990s | Defected to the government in December 2007. |

## Other high-ranking officials, ambassadors and envoys abroad

| Name | Position | Situation |
| Abdul Salam Zaeef | Ambassador to Pakistan | He was the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan before the US invasion of Afghanistan. Detained in Pakistan in the fall of 2001 and held in Guantanamo Bay until 2005 |
| Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi | Envoy to United States | Admitted to Yale as a non degree student in 2005 |
| Abdul Hakim Mujahid | Envoy to the United Nations | Arrived in Pakistan in early December 2001 |
| Hammdidullah, aka Janat Gul | Head of Ariana Afghan Airlines | Surrendered November 24, 2001 east of Konduz. Status later established by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal as "no longer enemy combatant" and released. |

## Field commanders

| Name | Position | Situation |
| Mohammad Fazl | Chief of Staff | He was the former Taliban Deputy Defense Minister Held at Guantanamo Bay from 11 January 2002 until 31 May 2014. |
| Dadullah | Senior Military Commander | Escaped from the siege of Kunduz in November 2001 and reached Kandahar. Took part in the evacuation of Kandahar, then may have returned to his native town Kajai in Helmand province. Allegedly participated (by giving orders via cell phone) in the murder of Ricardo Munguia on March 27, 2003. He was nicknamed by the anti-Taliban resistance before the Taliban government fell as The Lame because of a leg he had lost during fighting. One of the most effective commanders in the resistance, he has been linked to massacres of Shi'a, the scorched earth policy of Shi'a villages in 2001 (about which he once boasted on the radio), the summary execution of men suspected of throwing hand grenades into his compound in 2001 (they were hanged at one of the main roundabouts), and suicide bombings. Killed on May 13, 2007. |
| Jalaluddin Haqqani | Military leader | First mujahideen commander to capture a city, Khost, from the government of Kabul, in 1991. Didn't ally with the Taliban until after their capture of Kabul in 1995. Hamid Karzai asked him to serve as Prime Minister, in an attempt to split off the Taliban's moderate wing. His death from disease was announced 3 September 2018. |
| Abdul Razaq Nafez | Field commander | Released by Abdul Rashid Dostam in November 2001 after fighting near Kunduz and disappeared after fleeing to Kandahar |
| Shahzada | Provincial commander | A commander prior to the U.S. invasion, he was captured after the defeat of the Taliban and was interred in Guantanamo. He managed to convince authorities he was instead a civilian detained in error, and was released in 2003. He returned to fighting and was killed in 2004. |
| Dawran Safi | Field commander | Taliban field commander operating in Kunar Province. In October 2009, Pål Refsdal made a film on the daily life of the Taliban and the daily lives of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. This film showed the family of Dawran Safi, including his wife and children. Killed in a U.S airstrike on 23 October 2013, while his wife and two children were killed in earlier airstrikes including other civilians. |
| Gul Mohammed Jangvi | Field commander | On July 19, 2006 explained the Taliban's unexpected withdrawal from Helmand. |
| Akhtar Mohammad Osmani | Field commander | Killed in U.S. airstrike in December 2006. |
| Abdul Zahir | Group commander | Killed in the U.S. airstrike that killed Osmani in December 2006. |
| Mufti Nemat | Field commander | Important Taliban leader in northern Afghanistan, particularly Jowzjan Province, who was later expelled from the movement, defecting to the Afghan government, and then to Islamic State's Khorasan Province (ISIL-K). |
| Sheikh Ilyas Khel | Commander | Captured in Pakistan as of August 2, 2007. |