Taliban militants have entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani has fled the nation.
The hardline Islamist group has surged by means of the nation following the withdrawal of US forces, with army outposts, cities and main cities falling beneath their management.
A authorities minister has mentioned energy can be handed over to an interim administration because the insurgents are getting ready to taking management of the nation.
A Taliban official has mentioned it could quickly announce the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace.
The Taliban has made massive features in Afghanistan
Sky Information appears to be like at who the Taliban are, how they’ve come to energy and what they need for Afghanistan.
Who’re the Taliban?
The Taliban, which implies “college students” within the Pashto language, have been waging an insurgency in opposition to the Western-backed authorities in Kabul since they had been ousted from energy in 2001.
The group was fashioned by “mujahideen” fighters who fought Soviet forces within the Nineteen Eighties with the backing of the CIA.
What’s the group’s historical past in Afghanistan?
Rising in 1994 as considered one of a number of factions preventing a civil conflict, the Taliban gained management of a lot of the nation by 1996 and imposed its personal strict model of Sharia, or Islamic regulation.
The group has been accused of brutally implementing Sharia, with public executions for these convicted of homicide or adultery and amputation for these discovered responsible of theft. Males needed to develop their beards and girls needed to put on the burka, which covers their complete physique.
However after sheltering Osama bin Laden and key al Qaeda figures within the wake of the 11 September 2001 assaults on the World Commerce Middle, the Taliban would fall after a US-led army coalition launched an offensive on 7 October 2001.
Regardless of being ousted from energy, the Taliban would proceed a guerrilla conflict in opposition to the Western-backed governments and US-led forces within the nation.
What occurred to the US-Taliban peace talks?
The Taliban took the town of Jalalabad with out a struggle, officers mentioned
The Taliban entered into talks with the US in 2018 and struck a peace deal in February 2020 which dedicated the US to withdraw its troops whereas stopping the Taliban from attacking US forces.
Nonetheless, the Taliban have continued to kill Afghan safety forces and civilians.
What do they need for Afghanistan?
The fundamentalist group needs to revive Sharia to Afghanistan and people unable to go away the nation should adapt to a lifestyle they haven’t seen in twenty years.
Once they final dominated Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, girls couldn’t work, ladies weren’t allowed to attend faculty and girls needed to cowl their face and be accompanied by a male family member in the event that they needed to enterprise out of their properties. Music, TV and cinema had been banned.
The group has mentioned it’ll finish mixed-gender training and return Islamic regulation to a central place in society.
Afghans wait in lengthy traces for hours in entrance of Kabul Financial institution to get their cash. Pic: AP
Throughout talks over a political settlement in recent times, Taliban leaders made assurances to the West that girls would get pleasure from equal rights in accordance with what was granted by Islam, together with the power to work and be educated.
Earlier this yr, the Taliban mentioned it needed a “real Islamic system” that may make provisions for ladies’s and minority rights, in keeping with cultural traditions and spiritual guidelines.
Taliban forces patrol a avenue in Herat on 14 August
However earlier this month, fighters from the group walked into the places of work of a financial institution in Kandahar and ordered 9 girls working there to go away.
The gunmen escorted them to their properties and instructed them to not return to their jobs. As a substitute, they defined that male kinfolk might take their place, in response to three of the ladies concerned and the financial institution’s supervisor.
The incident is an early signal that among the rights received by Afghan girls over the 20 years for the reason that hardline motion was toppled might be reversed.
How are the Taliban funded?
US helicopters landed on the US Embassy in Kabul as diplomatic autos left the compound because the Taliban superior
The group are capable of elevate funds by means of a number of sources, together with the opium and medicines commerce.
In areas they management they’ve taxed farms and different companies, whereas the group has additionally obtained funding from supporters.
Who recognises the Taliban?
US Black Hawk army helicopters deploy anti-missile decoy flares over the town of Kabul. Pic: AP
Solely 4 nations recognised the Taliban when it was final in energy: neighbouring Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkemnistan.
The US and the United Nations imposed sanctions on the Taliban and most nations are unlikely to recognise the group diplomatically.
Nonetheless, some nations equivalent to China have prompt they could recognise the Taliban as a legit regime.
Who’re the principle gamers within the Taliban?
Haibatullah Akhundzada
Haibatullah Akhundzada is the Taliban’s supreme chief
Appointed the Taliban’s supreme chief after a US drone strike killed his predecessor in 2006, Haibatullah Akhundzada is broadly believed to have been chosen to function a non secular figurehead quite than army commander.
He was instrumental in unifying the militant group after it fractured throughout an influence wrestle following the assassination of his predecessor, Akhtar Mansour, and the revelation the management hid the dying of Taliban founder Mullah Omar for years.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy chief and negotiator
Abdul Ghani Baradar grew up in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban motion, and fought as an rebel in opposition to the Soviet occupation within the late Nineteen Seventies.
He based the Taliban alongside the one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar within the early Nineties following the Soviet withdrawal.
The mullah was arrested in Pakistan in 2010 and saved in custody till stress from the US noticed him launched in 2018. He now heads the political workplace of the Taliban and was a part of the negotiating workforce that signed the withdrawal settlement with the Individuals.
Sirajuddin Haqqani
An FBI needed poster for Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Haqqani community
The son of a distinguished mujahideen commander, Sirajuddin Haqqani leads the Haqqani community, a US-designated terror group that has lengthy been thought-about some of the harmful factions preventing Afghan and US-led NATO forces.
The group is notorious for its use of suicide bombers and has been accused of assassinating prime Afghan officers and holding kidnapped Western residents for ransom.
Mullah Yaqoob
The son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, Mullah Yaqoob oversees the group’s army operations.
He has been proposed as total chief of the motion throughout its numerous succession battles, however Yaqoob prompt Akhundzada because of his lack of battlefield expertise and age. He’s believed to be in his early 30s.
