On August 5, 2017, Taliban militants captured the Mirzawalang village in the Sar-e Pul province after a 48-hour battle with security forces. At least 50 people—mostly civilians—died during the fighting. Afghan officials believe the Taliban and ISIS jointly coordinated the attack, but the Taliban claimed they operated alone. (Sources: Reuters, CNN, Al Jazeera)
On July 31, 2017, an ISIS suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, killing two Afghan employees. The following day, ISIS suicide bombers attacked a Shiite mosque in Herat, killing at least 33 and wounding another 64. The attacks came three weeks after ISIS lost its last major stronghold in Iraq to U.S.-backed Iraqi forces, prompting Afghan security officials to question whether the terror group was ramping up its attacks in Afghanistan in response to its losses in Iraq.
According to the United Nations, 3,498 Afghan civilians died in terror-related attacks in 2016. By July, more than 1,700 Afghan civilians have died in terror attacks in 2017. According to a July 2017 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction to the U.S. Congress, 40 percent of Afghanistan remains under the control of the Taliban or other armed groups.
Overview
Afghanistan—officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan—has a tumultuous history of uprisings against the government, guerilla warfare, and foreign occupation dating back to the 19th century. The country now faces violent insurgencies by the Taliban and ISIS. According to the United Nations, Afghanistan suffered a record number of casualties in 2015, with more than 3,500 civilians killed and almost 7,500 wounded. (Sources: CNN, New York Times)
Bin Laden used Afghanistan as a base of operations from which to build his al-Qaeda network.
The Soviet invasion and Afghan civil war in the 1980s and early 1990s brought thousands of Islamic fighters into the country, including al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden used Afghanistan as a base of operations from which to build his al-Qaeda network. He built alliances between al-Qaeda and local militants, and later the Taliban, to provide al-Qaeda protection from Afghan authorities and other hostile forces. The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996, capitalizing on the country’s decentralized government control after the civil war. Al-Qaeda continued to use Afghanistan as a base until the United States dislodged the Taliban in 2001. Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters fought alongside each other against the U.S.-led coalition, leading then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair to declare in November 2001 that the groups had “virtually merged.” A leaked 2011 Joint Task Force Guantanamo report described a “unification” between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. (Sources: New York Times, Taliban, Ahmed Rashid, p. 22, 90, CNN, Weekly Standard)
Since being driven from the government in 2001, Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility for deadly bombings and other terror attacks across the country targeting foreign embassies and NATO’s headquarters, as well as Afghan security forces. The Taliban have also coordinated with the Haqqani network and al-Qaeda. In September 2015, the Taliban began capturing territory for the first time since it was removed from power. (Sources: Reuters, Reuters, Bloomberg News, New York Times)
ISIS has declared Afghanistan and Pakistan to be a singular region called the Khorasan Province. ISIS has initiated several suicide bombings and other attacks in the country, including a July 2016 double suicide bombing that killed more than 80 people. The majority of Afghan extremist groups have rejected ISIS, according to the U.S. State Department. The Taliban in particular have rejected ISIS’s encroachment into their territory, and the two groups have violently clashed. (Sources: NBC News, CNN, U.S. Department of State, Diplomat, Wall Street Journal)
Afghan security has worked with international forces to build and maintain the country’s security infrastructure and combat extremist groups. NATO ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014, but continues to support Afghan security forces. U.S. President Barack Obama announced in 2015 that U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan at least through the end of his presidency in 2017 to assist Afghan security in combatting the Taliban, ISIS, and other violent extremists. Despite Afghan successes against the insurgency, the Taliban have continued their bloody rebellion and seized new territory from the Afghan government as recently as August 2016.
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