Define Taliban in 100 words.
Answers
Answer:
After 20 years of war, the Taliban have swept to victory in Afghanistan.
The group completed their shockingly rapid advance across the country by capturing Kabul on 15 August.
It comes after foreign forces announced their withdrawal following a deal between the US and the Taliban, two decades after US forces removed the militants from power in 2001.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.
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Taliban forces have pledged not to allow Afghanistan to become a base for terrorists who could threaten the West.
But questions are already being asked about how the group will govern the country, and what their rule means for women, human rights, and political freedoms.
Why did the US fight a war in Afghanistan and why did it last so long?
Back in 2001, the US was responding to the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed. Officials identified Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, and its leader Osama Bin Laden, as responsible.
Bin Laden was in Afghanistan, under the protection of the Taliban, the Islamists who had been in power since 1996.
When they refused to hand him over, the US intervened militarily, quickly removing the Taliban and vowing to support democracy and eliminate the terrorist threat.
Army soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, B battery 2-8 field artillery - 2011
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,
The Afghan conflict became America's longest war
The militants slipped away and later regrouped.
Nato allies had joined the US and a new Afghan government took over in 2004 but deadly Taliban attacks continued. President Barack Obama's "troop surge" in 2009 helped push back the Taliban but it was not long term.
In 2014, at the end of what was the bloodiest year since 2001, Nato's international forces ended their combat mission, leaving responsibility for security to the Afghan army.
That gave the Taliban momentum and they seized more territory.
Peace talks between the US and the Taliban started tentatively, with the Afghan government pretty much uninvolved, and the agreement on a withdrawal came in February 2020 in Qatar.
The US-Taliban deal did not stop the Taliban attacks - they switched their focus instead to Afghan security forces and civilians, and targeted assassinations. Their areas of control grew.
Explanation:
They emerged in the civil war that followed the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, predominantly in the south-west and the Pakistan border areas.
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