Amrullah Saleh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Amrullah Saleh
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امرالله صالح
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Saleh in 2011
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| First Vice President of Afghanistan | |
| In office 19 February 2020 – 15 August 2021 |
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| President | Ashraf Ghani |
| Preceded by | Abdul Rashid Dostum |
| Succeeded by | Sirajuddin Haqqani (as First Deputy Leader) |
| Acting Interior Minister of Afghanistan | |
| In office 23 December 2018 – 19 January 2019 |
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| President | Ashraf Ghani |
| Preceded by | Wais Barmak |
| Succeeded by | Masoud Andarabi |
| Head of the National Directorate of Security | |
| In office February 2004 – June 2010 |
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| President | Hamid Karzai |
| Preceded by | Muhammad Arif Sarwari |
| Succeeded by | Rahmatullah Nabil |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 15 October 1972 Panjshir Province, Afghanistan |
| Political party | Basej-e Milli |
| Children | 5 |
Amrullah Saleh (born October 15, 1972) is a politician from Afghanistan. He was the first vice president of Afghanistan from 2020 to 2021. Before that, he was the head of Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), from 2004 to 2010.
As a young man, Saleh fought against the country's communist government. He later joined the Northern Alliance, a group that fought against the Taliban. He was known for being a strong critic of the Taliban and Pakistan.
After the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, President Ashraf Ghani left the country. Saleh went to the Panjshir Valley and declared himself the caretaker president of Afghanistan. He helped form a group called the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan to fight against Taliban rule. When the Taliban took control of Panjshir, Saleh fled to Tajikistan.
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Early Life and Family
Amrullah Saleh was born on October 15, 1972, in the Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan. He is an ethnic Tajik. His parents died when he was young, and his family faced difficult times.
Saleh's family was affected by the political conflicts in Afghanistan. In 1996, the Taliban tortured his older sister, Mariam, to try to find out where he was. In 2021, his brother Rohullah Azizi was killed by the Taliban.
Saleh is married and has five children: three daughters and two sons. He speaks English fluently.
Career
Joining the Mujahideen
In 1990, Saleh joined the mujahideen, a group of fighters opposing the Soviet-backed Afghan army. He did not want to be forced to join the army. He received military training in Pakistan and fought under the command of Ahmad Shah Massoud.
In the late 1990s, Saleh was part of the Northern Alliance, which fought against the Taliban. In 1997, Massoud put him in charge of the Northern Alliance's office in the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. There, he worked with international aid groups and intelligence agencies. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Saleh helped lead intelligence operations that led to the fall of the Taliban government.
Head of National Security
In 2004, President Hamid Karzai appointed Saleh as the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's main intelligence agency. Saleh worked to rebuild the agency and was seen as a very capable leader. He was known for fighting corruption within the NDS.
While at the NDS, Saleh sent agents into Pakistan to search for Osama bin Laden and other leaders of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2006, he received information that bin Laden was living in a town in Pakistan near Abbottabad. He told Pakistan's president at the time, Pervez Musharraf, but Musharraf dismissed the information.
Saleh and President Karzai later had disagreements about how to deal with the Taliban. Karzai began to refer to the Taliban as "brothers" and wanted to make a deal with them. Saleh believed this was a mistake and that Pakistan could not be trusted to help.
In June 2010, Saleh resigned from the NDS after an attack on a national peace meeting. Many officials were concerned about his resignation. They felt Afghanistan had lost a smart and dedicated leader in the fight against terrorism.
Political Activism
After leaving the NDS, Saleh started a political movement called Basej-e Milli, also known as the Afghanistan Green Trend. The movement was pro-democracy and anti-Taliban. In 2011, he led a large anti-Taliban protest in Kabul.
Saleh often warned that making a deal with the Taliban without them giving up their weapons would be dangerous for Afghanistan. He believed it would threaten democracy and human rights, especially for women. He argued that the Taliban should have to accept the rules of democracy before being included in the government.
In 2017, President Ashraf Ghani appointed Saleh as State Minister for Security Reforms. A year later, in December 2018, Ghani made him the acting Minister of Interior Affairs. As minister, Saleh worked to reduce the power of local warlords over the police in Kabul.
Vice President of Afghanistan
In January 2019, Saleh resigned as Interior Minister to join President Ashraf Ghani's team for the upcoming presidential election. After Ghani won, Saleh became the First Vice President of Afghanistan in February 2020.
The Fall of Kabul
In August 2021, the Taliban rapidly took over most of Afghanistan. When they entered the capital city of Kabul on August 15, President Ghani fled the country.
Saleh, however, remained in Afghanistan. He announced on Twitter that he would "never be under one ceiling with Taliban." He went to the Panjshir Valley, a region that had not yet been captured by the Taliban.
The Panjshir Resistance
On August 17, 2021, Saleh declared himself the "caretaker President" of Afghanistan. He said that according to the country's constitution, the First Vice President takes over if the president leaves, resigns, or dies.
He joined with Ahmad Massoud, the son of his former commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, to form the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. They gathered fighters in the Panjshir Valley to resist the Taliban.
In early September 2021, the Taliban launched a major attack on Panjshir and soon claimed to have taken full control of the valley. After the valley fell, Saleh escaped to neighboring Tajikistan. From outside Afghanistan, he continues to support the resistance movement.
Attempts on His Life
Saleh has been the target of several attacks. He once said in an interview that he was a "legitimate target" because he had fought proudly against his enemies.
- On July 28, 2019, attackers set off a bomb and then stormed his office in Kabul. At least 20 people were killed, but Saleh was not hurt.
- On September 9, 2020, a roadside bomb exploded as his car was passing. Ten people were killed, and Saleh was wounded with burns on his face and an injury to his hand.
See also
In Spanish: Amrullah Saleh para niños
- Ashraf Ghani
- Hasib Qoway Markaz
Images for kids
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Afghan Green Trend rally in Kabul in May 2013
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Amrullah Saleh addressing a youth rally in Kabul in May 2013
