Mullah Yaqoob

Biography

Mullah Yaqoob is an ethnic Pashtun of the Tumzi clan of the Hotak tribe, which is part of the larger Ghilji branch. He is the eldest son of the late Taliban founder Mullah Omar. He received his religious education in various seminaries in Karachi, Pakistan.

When his father died in April 2013 and rumors escalated that he had been assassinated by rival Akhtar Mansour, Yaqoob denied the rumor, insisting that his father had died of natural causes.

Leadership positions

In 2016, Yaqoob was assigned by the Taliban to be in charge of the military commission in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. The military commission, then headed by Ibrahim Sadr, is responsible for overseeing all military affairs of the Taliban. In addition, Yaqoob was included in the Taliban's top decision-making council, the Rehbari Shura.

Mansour's death was announced on 21 May 2016 and he was replaced by Hibatullah Akhundzada as the Taliban leader. Sirajuddin Haqqani, a deputy to Mansour and leader of the Haqqani network, retained his position as Taliban deputy leader to Akhundzada, and Yaqoob was appointed the second deputy to the Taliban chief.

COVID-19 pandemic

On 7 May 2020, he was appointed head of the Taliban military commission, replacing Sadr and making Yaqoob the insurgents' military chief. On 29 May 2020, influential senior Taliban commander Mualana Muhammad Ali Jan Ahmed told Foreign Policy that Yaqoob became the acting leader to the entire Taliban after Akhundzada and First Deputy Leader Sirajuddin Haqqani became ill with COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan, stating "Our hero, the son of our great leader, Mullah Yaqoob, is running the entire Taliban operation in Haibatullah's absence."

Provisional Taliban government

Yaqoob is the defense minister of Afghanistan, appointed on 7 September 2021 in an acting capacity, and reappointed to the position on a permanent basis on 15 August 2025, with the rest of the cabinet.

In December 2022, Yaqoob met with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. They discussed strengthening of relations between the UAE and Afghanistan. On 4 March 2024, Yaqoob attended the DIMIDEX (Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference) 2024 exhibition in Qatar, where various international companies displayed land, air and naval military equipment and vehicles such as the LY-70 air defense missile system, ZTD-05 assault vehicle, HJ-12 anti-tank missile and more to the Taliban.