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 regained power in August 2021 after years of insurgency.
Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
Mohammed Omar Mujahid was an Afghan religious scholar, partisan fighter and political leader. He was the founder of the Taliban and served as its first leader. He founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996.
Omar, also spelled Umar, was the second caliph of Islam.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also referred to as the First Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, was an Islamic state established in September 1996, when the Taliban began their governance of Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul. At its peak, the Taliban government controlled approximately 90% of the country, while remaining regions in the northeast were held by the Northern Alliance, which maintained broad international recognition as a continuation of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.
The OMAR Mine Museum in Kabul, Afghanistan, contains a collection of 51 types of land mines out of the 53 that have been used in that country. OMAR is an acronym for the Organization for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th-century monumental statues, Salsal and Shahmama, which were carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, 130 kilometres (81 mi) northwest of Kabul at an elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). Carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined that the smaller 38 m (125 ft) "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 AD, and the larger 55 m (180 ft) "Western Buddha" was built around 618 AD, which would date both to the time when the Hephthalites ruled the region.
Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan in the north and the Pakistan-administered Lower and Upper Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan in the southeast. It also has a 91-kilometer (57-mile) border with China in the east.
Omar Ahmed Said Khadr is a Canadian citizen who at the age of 15 was detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay for ten years, during which he pleaded guilty to the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer and other charges. He later appealed his conviction, claiming that he falsely pleaded guilty so that he could return to Canada where he remained in custody for three additional years. Khadr sued the Canadian government for infringing his rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; this lawsuit was settled in 2017 with a CA$10.5 million payment and an apology by the federal government.
Omar Khalifa Mohammed Abu Bakr Mahjour Umar is a citizen of Libya who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba, from August 5, 2002, until April 4, 2016. Abu Bakr's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 695. American intelligence analysts estimate that Abu Bakr was born in 1972 in Al Bayda [sic], Libya.
Khwaja Ghar District is a district of Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The district was badly destroyed during the 1996-2001 Afghan Civil War in fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance.
Mining in Afghanistan was controlled by the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, prior to the August 15th takeover by the Taliban. It is headquartered in Kabul with regional offices in other parts of the country. Afghanistan has over 1,400 mineral fields, containing barite, chromite, coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, natural gas, petroleum, precious and semi-precious stones, salt, sulfur, lithium, talc, and zinc, among many other minerals. Gemstones include high-quality emerald, lapis lazuli, red garnet and ruby. According to a joint study by The Pentagon and the United States Geological Survey, Afghanistan has an estimated US$1 trillion of untapped minerals.
Mohammad Omar was the Governor of Kunduz Province, Afghanistan. He was an ethnic Andar Pashtun from the Takhar Province of 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.
Waheed Omar is a politician in Afghanistan currently serving as President Ghani's Senior Advisor and Director General of Office of Public and Strategic Affairs. From 2016 to 2019 he served as Ambassador of Afghanistan to Italy. He was also Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to World Food Programme, International Fund for Agricultural Development, FAO and IDLO. Between 2009 and 2011 he served as Chief Spokesperson of President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. He helped President Karzai win his second term as Communications Director of his reelection campaign in 2009. During the electoral campaign and the aftermath of the election he was often seen as Karzai's one-man frontline. Both President Karzai's supporters as well as his opponents recognized Waheed Omer's eloquence, civil debate skills, his equal fluency in Pashto and Persian, and his media-management skills..
Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, also addressed with the honorific Mullah, was the 2nd leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban), an Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan. Succeeding the founding leader, Mullah Omar, he was supreme leader from 29 July 2015 to 21 May 2016, when he was killed in a US drone strike after crossing into Pakistan from Iran.
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.
Omar Torrijos Herrera is a district in the Panamanian province of Colón, located approximately 115 kilometres (71 mi) west of Panama City. It is named after Omar Torrijos, de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981.
The leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the emir of the Taliban and—since the 2021 fall of Kabul and previously from 1996 to 2001—the de facto ruler and head of state of Afghanistan. A supreme leader, the emir has complete authority on all matters of Taliban and Afghan governance, though the consultative Leadership Council significantly influences his decision-making. He is a national religious leader in addition to a political and military one.
