Afghanistan,officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia. Referred to as the "Heart of Asia",it is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south,Iran to the west,Turkmenistan to the northwest,Uzbekistan to the north,Tajikistan to the northeast,and China to the northeast and east. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi) of land,the country is predominately mountainous with plains in the north and the southwest,which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. As of 2021,its population is 40.2 million,composed mostly of ethnic Pashtuns,Tajiks,Hazaras,and Uzbeks. Kabul is the country's largest city and serves as its capital.
Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s,he led the government's military wing against rival militias;after the Taliban takeover,he was the leading opposition commander against their regime until his assassination in 2001.
Mohammad Ismail Khan is an Afghan former politician who served as Minister of Energy and Water from 2005 to 2013 and before that served as the governor of Herat Province. Originally a captain in the national army,he is widely known as a former warlord as he controlled a large mujahideen force,mainly his fellow Tajiks from western Afghanistan,during the Soviet–Afghan War. His reputation gained him the nickname Lion of Herat. Ismail Khan was a key member of the now exiled political party Jamiat-e Islami and of the now defunct United National Front party. In 2021,Ismail Khan returned to arms to help defend Herat from the Taliban's offensive,which he and the Afghan Army lost. He was then captured by the Taliban forces and then reportedly fled to Iran on 16 August 2021.
The Taliban,which also refers to itself by the name of its state,the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,is a Deobandi-Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist,militant Islamist,and jihadist political movement in Afghanistan. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996–2001,before being overthrown following the United States invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 after years of insurgency,and currently controls all of the country.
Hamid Karzai is an Afghan politician who served as President of Afghanistan from 22 December 2001 to 29 September 2014. He is also the khan (head) of the Popalzai Durrani Pashtun tribe of Kandahar Province.
Kapisa is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The province of Kapisa has a population of approximately 488 000. The main ethnic groups in Kapisa are Tajik,Pashtun,and Nuristani. The province is situated in central-eastern Afghanistan,surrounded by the provinces of Panjshir,Laghman,Kabul and Parwan. Kapisa is divided in seven districts. A primary road connects the capital of Kapisa to Kabul City. The province is considered of strategic importance due to its location.The province covers an area of 1,842 km2 (711 sq mi) making it the smallest province in the country,however it is the most densely populated province apart from Kabul Province. Clashes have been reported in the province since the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
Atta Muhammad Nur is an Afghan exiled politician and former militant who served as the Governor of Balkh Province in Afghanistan from 2004 to January 25,2018. An ethnic Tajik,he worked to educate the Mujahideen after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,gaining the nickname "The Teacher". He then became a mujahideen resistance commander for the Jamiat-e Islami against the Soviets.
The Northern Alliance,officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan,was a military alliance of groups that operated between late 1996 to 2001 after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) took over Kabul. The United Front was originally assembled by key leaders of the Islamic State of Afghanistan,particularly president Burhanuddin Rabbani and former Defense Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud. Initially it included mostly Tajiks but by 2000,leaders of other ethnic groups had joined the Northern Alliance. This included Karim Khalili,Abdul Rashid Dostum,Abdullah Abdullah,Mohammad Mohaqiq,Abdul Qadir,Asif Mohseni,Amrullah Saleh and others.
Major-General Naseerullah Khan Babar was a former Interior Minister of Pakistan. He was a retired 2-star general officer in the Pakistan Army,and later career military officer-turned statesman from,the Pakistan Peoples Party. In 1975,Babar took early voluntary retirement from the Pakistan Army to become Governor of NWFP. He joined the Pakistan Peoples Party after Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's government was dismissed in 1977.
Ahmad Zia Massoud is an Afghan politician who was the Vice President of Afghanistan in the first elected administration of President Hamid Karzai,from December 2004 to November 2009. He is a younger brother of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud,the resistance leader against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and against the Taliban. In late 2011,Ahmad Zia Massoud joined hands with major leaders in the National Front of Afghanistan,which strongly opposes a return of the Taliban to power. The National Front is generally regarded as a reformation of the United Front which with U.S. air support removed the Taliban from power in late 2001.
Taj Mohammad Wardak is an Afghan politician,from the Pashtun ethnic group. He spent some of the period of the Taliban's administration in the United States of America,and became an American citizen.
Mohammad Haneef Atmar is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and a former Interior Minister of Afghanistan. He was removed from the Ministry of Interior Affairs by Hamid Karzai in the wake of attacks on the June 2010 Afghan Peace Jirga. Before that he worked with several international humanitarian organisations and served as Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and Minister of Education. In 2011,he was part of the Right and Justice party. During his time in office,he has visited several countries to get funding to stabilise Afghanistan.
Abdul Ghani Baradar is an Afghan political and religious leader who is currently the acting first deputy prime minister alongside Abdul Salam Hanafi and Abdul Kabir,of Afghanistan. He is also a co-founder of the Taliban. He is known by the honorific Mullah. Originally Mullah Omar's top deputy,since 2019 he has been the Taliban's fourth-in-command,as the third of Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada's three deputies.
Abdul Karim Brahui is a politician in Afghanistan and current governor of Nimroz Province. He was Governor of Nimroz Province from 2010 to 2012 and has served previously as a minister in the Cabinet of Afghanistan. From February 2009 to August 2010,Brahui served as the Minister of Refugees. In 2004,Brahui was appointed Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs.
The Afghanistan conflict is a continuous series of wars fought in Afghanistan from 1978 through to the present day.
Sayed Noorullah Murad is an Afghan politician,military commander and member of the Afghan cabinet during the presidency of Hamid Karzai. He was born in Kunduz city in the north of Afghanistan. His father is Mawlawi Abdul Jalil Faqiri,a famous religious and social leader of Afghanistan.
Hibatullah Akhundzada is an Afghan Islamic scholar,cleric,and jurist who is the 3rd and current leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban),serving since 2016. Since the 2021 fall of Kabul,this position has made him Afghanistan's de facto ruler and head of state. The Taliban call him the Amir al-Mu'minin,which was the title of his two predecessors. He is also known by the honorifics Mawlawi and Mullah.
Lt. Gen. Murad Ali Murad is a military personnel in Afghanistan,previously serving as Deputy Interior Minister for Security. The ceremony took place at the Ministry of Defense on 18 May 2017.
Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai is a senior member of the Afghan Taliban and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs since 7 September 2021.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic in South-Central Asia that ruled most of Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace a transitional authority formed following the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan,which captured most of the country from the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Following the War in Afghanistan,it lost control of the majority of the country to the Islamic Emirate in the summer offensive of 2021,culminating in its removal by the Taliban subsequently in the Taliban's capture of Kabul on 15 August 2021.
