The Taliban have named Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund as the country’s interim prime minister of the Islamic Emirate.
Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Akhund is one of the movement’s founders.
Also appointed, are Sarajuddin Haqqani, interior minister, Mullah Yaqoob, acting defence minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, foreign minister, and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi as two deputies.
Yaqoob is the son of Taliban founder and late supreme leader Mullah Omar.
Baradar was previously head of the Taliban’s political office and oversaw the signing of the US withdrawal agreement last year.
The new interior minister is on the FBI wanted list as he is the leader of the Haqqani militant group, who are affiliated with the Taliban and have been behind some of the deadliest attacks in the country’s two-decade-long war.
“We know the people of our country have been waiting for a new government,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding that the group had answered the people’s needs.