MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. On August 15, 2021 the radical movement Taliban (outlawed in Russia) entered Kabul without encountering any resistance. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani fled. The Taliban said the whole of the country was under their control.

The Taliban

The Taliban is a radical Islamist movement that emerged in 1994 among the Afghan Pashtuns (they make up about 40% of the Afghan population). The group’s members were recruited from among the refugees, who fled Afghanistan due to the 1979-1989 war, and who received religious education in madrasas in Pakistan (the movement’s name is derived from the Arabic word "talib" - student). The movement’s proclaimed goals were the ousting of the Burhanuddin Rabbani government, which had been in power since 1992, and the introduction of Sharia law. The first military clashes between government forces and Taliban units took place in the autumn of 1994.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996-2001)

In September 1996, the militants seized Kabul, proclaimed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and stayed in power up to 2001. Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognized their government. In the controlled territory the Taliban established a regime based on strict observance of Islamic law; violations entailed brutal punishments - amputation of limbs, stoning, and public executions. In 1998, the Taliban captured about 90% of the country's territory. Only a small area in the northwest of the country remained under the control of the anti-Taliban forces (the Northern Alliance).

Due to the fact that bases of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda (outlawed in Russia) and its leader Osama bin Laden were located on the Taliban-controlled territory the UN Security Council in October 1999 adopted a resolution demanding Bin Laden’s extradition. UN sanctions were imposed on the Taliban. An arms embargo followed in December 2000. In the face of international political isolation, the Taliban entered into direct confrontation with the world community: in March 2001, they blew up the largest Buddha statues in Bamiyan, which were more than 1,500 years old.

Taliban’s overthrow (2001)

After the terrorist attacks in the United States, organized by Al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001, and Taliban’s refusal to extradite Bin Laden, the United States and Britain on October 7, 2001, launched a military operation in Afghanistan codenamed Enduring Freedom (more countries joined in later to form the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force - ISAF). The goals of the military operation were the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban’s influence, the elimination of terrorist bases and the capture of Al-Qaeda’s leaders. By December 2001, the Taliban regime was overthrown. The militants fled to the mountains to begin a guerrilla war. Many Taliban and Al-Qaeda members moved to Pakistan.

The Taliban after the overthrow (2002-2014)

Entrenched in the northwestern part of Pakistan (on the border with Afghanistan), the Taliban in 2005 actually created a "state within a state" - the Islamic State of Waziristan, which ceased to exist only in 2009 after a series of major operations by the Pakistani army. Later, despite the presence of US and NATO contingents in Afghanistan, the Taliban regained influence in several parts of the country.

By 2015, the military units of all ISAF member-countries, except for the United States, were withdrawn from the country. In accordance with an agreement with the Afghan government, the United States preserved a contingent of 9,800 (later its strength was increased to 12,000). Its tasks were to train the Afghan security forces and conduct counter-terrorism operations against militants.

After the completion of NATO’s combat mission, the movement, which at that time numbered 50,000-60,000, continued the war with the Afghan government forces. Starting from 2015 the Taliban significantly expanded its zone of influence in Afghanistan.

Attempts at negotiations

The Afghan government repeatedly tried to enter into negotiations with the Taliban, but they put forward preconditions, such as recognition as a legitimate political force and pullout of US troops from the country. In 2015-2016 there were several rounds of direct negotiations between government representatives and the Taliban, with the United States, China and Qatar acting as go-betweens, but the parties were unable to agree on a single item while discussing the peace process. In the autumn of 2018, the United States began negotiations with Taliban representatives (in the United States, the movement was not listed as a terrorist organization). The talks took place in Doha (Qatar) and in Abu Dhabi (UAE). The Afghan government did not participate.

On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha on the US pullout from Afghanistan and the launch of a peace process. The US pledged to reduce the number of troops from 12,000 thousand to 8,600 thousand within 4.5 months and to withdraw the remaining military personnel within 14 months, avoid interference in the country's internal politics and refrain from using force. The agreement provided for the lifting of US sanctions from members of the Taliban movement (imposed in 1999) and assistance in securing the removal of the Taliban from the UN sanctions list.

For its part, the Taliban agreed to end terrorist and military activities and abandon cooperation with other terrorist organizations. The agreement also envisaged intra-Afghan negotiations by the Taliban, the Afghan government and the country's legal political forces. In a confidence-building measure, by the moment the negotiations were to be launched, the Afghan government was to release up to 5,000 Taliban members from prison in exchange for 1,000 Taliban-held security force personnel. On March 9, 2020, the United States began the troop pullout. The exchange of prisoners was completed on September 11, 2020. Intra-Afghan negotiations began in Doha in September 2020. They were repeatedly interrupted and produced no results.

Offensive (2021)

As the withdrawal of US troops began on April 29, 2021, clashes broke out between the Taliban and Afghan security forces across the country. In July 2021, the Taliban gained control of areas along the borders with Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and Pakistan. In August, the Taliban seized a number of cities and centers in the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Nimruz, Farah, Herat, Badghiz, Ghor, Kunduz, Takhar, Parwan, Kapisa, Logar, Baghlan, Faryab, Sar-e Pol, Jowzjan, Samangan, Ghazni, Zabul, Badakhshan, and Logar. In some of them, the authorities and security forces surrendered to the radicals, while in others there were armed clashes involving the use of heavy weapons. On August 15, the Taliban forces approached Kabul, but refrained from storming the city. After the capital’s surrender by government forces the Taliban rejected the proposal for creating a transitional government and demanded direct and full control of Afghanistan.

Losses during years of standoff

Over the 13 years (2001-2014) of the operation Enduring Freedom and the presence of ISAF troops, 2,200 US servicemen and 1,800 from the coalition’s other countries were killed. Afghan government troops lost 13,700. The Taliban’s losses, according to various estimates, ranged from 20,000 to 35,000. According to the Costs of War project of the United States’ Brown University, from October 2001 to April 2021, the conflict claimed the lives of 47,200 civilians.