Mawlawi Fathullah Mansoor assumed his current role as Deputy Minister for Operations at the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in mid-January 2024. Prior to this appointment, he commanded the air brigade within the 205 Al-Badr Military Corps in Kandahar province. Before that, he served as General Director of Kandahar Military Airport, a position he held since November 2021.
Most notably, he is the eldest son of the late Taliban emir, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in May 2016 while traveling between the Iran–Pakistan border on his return from Iran. Despite his death, the elder Mansoor’s influence continues to shape the dynamics of intra-Taliban politics today.
In their annual public briefing in late July 2025, Fathullah Mansoor and his colleagues reported that the ministry currently operates international flights to a number of countries, including Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Russia, Turkey, India, China, Uzbekistan, and Kuwait, among others. The ministry also reported overseeing more than 14,000 flights from Afghanistan’s airports in 2024—most of them departing from Kabul International Airport—as well as more than 96,000 transit flights through Afghan airspace. Additionally, the ministry has signed bilateral transportation agreements with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Russia, and issued approximately 24,000 road transport permits to Afghan and Pakistani drivers operating in Kabul, Kandahar, Quetta, and Peshawar, the latter cities two located in Pakistan.
