Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, [b] also spelled Haibatullah Akhunzada, [c] is an Afghan cleric who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan in the internationally unrecognized Taliban regime. He has led the Taliban since 2016, and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war .

Sep 7, 2021 · Hibatullah Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in May 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Sep 7, 2021 · Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, 55, was already the radical fundamentalist group's appointed leader. That's a position he secured in May 2016, days after the second leader in the Taliban's...

Apr 13, 2023 · The Taliban's supreme leader says Afghanistan will be “ruined" without justice, in a rare audio message shared on social media. Hibatullah Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, almost never appears in public and hardly ever leaves the Taliban heartland in …

Jun 17, 2024 · Hibatullah Akhundzada gave his warning in a sermon to mark the festival of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in southern Kandahar province, weeks before a Taliban delegation goes to Doha, Qatar for U.N.-hosted talks on Afghanistan.

Jan 23, 2025 · Secluded in his stronghold in southern Afghanistan, reclusive Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is the cornerstone of the movement that has ruled the country unchallenged since ...

Feb 17, 2023 · Behind this powerful entity is a reclusive supreme leader, Mawlavi Hibatullah Akhundzada. Since the group came back to power with the U.S.-led military coalition withdrawal a year and a...

Hibatullah Akhundzada (Pashto: هَبَّتِ اللَّهُ اخْنُدَزَادَهُ ‎; born 26 March 1957) is an Afghan politician, soldier, scholar, cleric, and jurist who is the 2nd and the current Supreme Leader of Afghanistan since 2021 and as well as the 3rd Leader of the Taliban since 2016 following a drone that strike killed his ...

Aug 15, 2023 · Two years since the Taliban took over again, Afghanistan is in the hands of Hibatullah Akhundzada, known as the Amir Al Mu'mineen, or "Commander of the Faithful." But despite the prominence...

May 25, 2016 · The Afghan Taliban's new leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is a hardline religious scholar from Kandahar who is thought unlikely to change the group's direction. The...