Security Exchange News

News By Category: AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban and Global Jihad

10 September 2021

Over the last month, many have expressed concerns that - despite pledges from the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan being used for terrorist activity - a Taliban-run government will inevitably increase the risk of the country becoming a safe haven for Islamist militants to recruit, train, and plot reprisal attacks on the Western forces that occupied the country for 20 years. The cautious consensus amongst the international community is that the Taliban’s desire for recognition as a legitimate government overrides any desire to ‘get back’ at the powerful Western forces that largely withdrew before the Taliban were in a strong enough position to topple the fragile Afghan government. It is widely accepted that if the US were given reason to intervene in Afghanistan again, the Taliban neither have the numbers or the resources to stay in power. Therefore, it is in the group’s interests to honour their promise and contain al-Qaeda and other associated militant groups, such as the Haqqani Network. What we have seen so far, following the fall of Kabul, have been deadly attacks either carried out, or inspired by, Islamic State (IS) – a group the Taliban has been fighting for many years.

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The Race to Leave

24 August 2021

As the 31 August withdrawal deadline rapidly approaches, international evacuation efforts at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport (KBL) have become a race against time. The airport is currently managed by the US military, which agreed to withdraw all US forces by September in a landmark agreement with the Taliban last year. Without US troops on the ground, other allied forces will be unable to hold the airport or maintain a military presence in the country.

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The Return of the Taliban

15 August 2021

This morning, Kabul residents awoke to face their first full day under Taliban rule in two decades. Over the course of the last 12 months, the Taliban have increasingly escalated violent attacks on the Afghan government security forces and foreign troops, culminating in an unprecedented nationwide offensive - which saw Taliban insurgents advance on Kabul yesterday, seizing the capital.

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Female students demand education after bombing

16 November 2022

A major suicide bomb attack targeted an educational centre in Kabul on Friday 30 September, killing at least 53 students – most of them young women. The blast occurred in the female section of the gender-segregated Kaj Education and Learning Centre in the Shia Muslim Hazara majority community of Dasht-e-Barchi, Kabul. Students had been undertaking practice exams at the time. Following the attack, Afghan women in academia have been leading demonstrations to protest against attacks targeting women and the Shia Muslim minority. Throughout the last week, protests have been reported in Kabul and other large cities, including Herat, Bamyan and Mazar-i-Sharif.

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