Hibatullah Akhundzada

Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada (Pashto; Dari: هبت الله آخندزاده, born 19 October 1967), also alternatively spelled as Haibatullah Akhunzada, is an Afghan cleric who is the supreme leader of Afghanistan under the Taliban government. He has led the Taliban since 2016, and came to power with its victory over U.S.-backed forces in the 2001–2021 war. A highly reclusive figure, he has almost no digital footprint except for two photographs and several audio recordings of speeches.

Akhundzada is well known for his fatwas on Taliban matters. Unlike many Taliban leaders, Akhundzada did not have any experience in actual combat, although one of his sons was a suicide bomber. He was an Islamic judge of the Sharia courts of the 1996–2001 Taliban government. He was chosen to lead the Taliban’s shadow court system at the start of the Taliban insurgency, and remained in that post until being elected supreme leader of the Taliban in May 2016. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda, backed Akhundzada as the Amir al-Mu'minin, which strengthened Akhundzada's jihadist reputation among the Taliban's allies. In 2019, Akhundzada appointed Abdul Ghani Baradar to lead peace talks with the U.S., which led to the 2020 signing of the Doha Agreement that cleared the way for the full withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan.