Taliban announce new government for Afghanistan

International Desk

Published: September 7, 2021, 09:30 PM

Taliban announce new government for Afghanistan

The Taliban announced a hardline new caretaker government for Afghanistan on Tuesday, several international media outlets report. 

Top Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund was named as the new interim Afghan prime minister and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as his deputy.

Mullah Yaqoob, one of the deputy leaders of the Taliban since 2016, will act as caretaker defense minister.

A Taliban soldier patrols at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. 

Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terror group aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda, has been appointed acting interior minister. Haqqani has a $5 million US bounty on his head.

The announcement of key figures in the caretaker government comes weeks after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, and presents the first picture of how their leadership of the country will begin to take shape.

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