File photo of Afghan Taliban foreign minister Mulla Mohammad Hassan Akhund (L) at an Air Force base in Rawalpindi, some 25 kilometers from Islamabad, meeting his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz on August 24, 1999.
Initially backed by the US as one of the most effective anti-Soviet militia in the 1980s, the semi-autonomous group was blamed for some of the deadliest attacks on coalition forces.
The network, whose exact status within the Taliban structure is debated, has been named a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States although the Taliban itself has not.
The United Nations Sanctions Committee has said the group, based in the lawless frontier areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan, has close involvement in drugs production and trade.
Mohammad Hassan Akhund, one of the movement’s founders, named the prime minister, is on a UN blacklist.
