Ismail Khan

Ismail Khan is an Afghan regional leader, whose base has been centered around Herat city and province in the West. He is significant as being one of the Afghan leaders closest to Iran. A Dari-speaking Tajik, he led the 1979 revolt against the Communist-friendly Taraki government's land reform, in which Soviet advisers and families were killed, triggering an intense Afghan-Soviet response that killed up to 24,000 Heratis and destroyed most of the city.

He fought the Taliban but was defeated and escaped to Iran in 1995. In the Afghanistan War (2001-), he joined the Northern Alliance and was part of defeating the Taliban. The U.S. fired cruise missiles at his headquarters in January 2002.

He became governor of Herat, a powerful post, but was removed in 2004 by President Hamid Karzai, who made him national Minister of Energy.