Yousef Ahmadi

Qari Mohammad Yousef Ahmadi is one of the two Taliban spokesmen, the other being Zabiullah Mujahid. In 2006, Ahmadi contacted Reuters, the Associated Press, Canadian Press and Afghan Islamic Press by satellite phone to offer Taliban messages regarding southern Afghanistan.[1][2][3][4]

In August 2008, his name began appearing once again, as the focus of a number of Canadian Press interviews with Toby Cohen, in which he advised Canadians that they should elect a Prime Minister who would remove Canadian troops in Afghanistan.[5][6] Ahmadi is quoted as saying that "the election is being held in Canada. That is why our attacks on Canadians are increased".[7] He is also alleged to have said that the Taliban "don't want to fight with Canadians. Actually we want to create friendship with Canadians".[8]

In November 2012, Ahmadi accidentally used CC instead of BCC when emailing a routine Taliban press release, exposing the names and email addresses of more than 400 Taliban press contacts. The list consisted mostly of journalists, as well as email addresses that may have belonged to an Afghan legislator, a provincial governor, academics, activists, an Afghan consultative committee, and a representative of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.[9]