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 …

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...

Jan 24, 2025 · Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Friday condemned the International Criminal Court's request for arrest warrants against their supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and his chief justice for...

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...

Hibatullah Akhundzada has been supreme leader since the Taliban took control of the government in August 2021, and he has issued a large number of decrees, many of which have imposed his cultural views, ultraconservative even by Taliban standards, on the country with no opportunity for public consultation. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Jul 15, 2023 · The decrees, edicts and instructions of Taleban supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, from 2016, when he became leader, to May 2023, have been published. They make fascinating reading, tracing some of what the leadership felt was important to ban, make obligatory, organise or administer during the insurgency and since recapturing power.