Taliban

Afghan political and religious military force that seized control of southern and central Afghanistan, including the country's capital, Kabul, in September 1996. An Islamic regime was imposed, and by the end of 1996 the Taliban controlled two-thirds of the country. In 1997, the Taliban changed the country's official name to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban receives financial support from Saudi Arabia, but the regime was, as of mid-1998, recognized by only three states: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan. In September 2000, the Taliban claimed to control 95% of Afghanistan and declared that it deserved international recognition as the country's government. In October 2001, US-led forces launched military strikes on Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to give up Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader named as the prime suspect in the 11 September terrorist attacks on the USA.

The Taliban was founded in 1994 by around 2,000 Pathan Sunni Muslim theology students based in madrassas (religious schools) near the Pakistan border. The force pledged to end the internecine conflict between the divergent Mujahedin elements that had continued after the overthrow of communist leader Najibullah Ahmadzai in April 1992. The group also pledged to establish a united and patriarchal Islamic state and to eradicate the booming drugs-trade.

The Taliban rose to prominence in January 1995 with the capture of Kandahar, the country's second-largest city, and the subsequent defeat of the forces of fundamentalist Afghan Mujahedin leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The town of Herat fell to the Taliban in September 1995. The Taliban's initial advances on Kabul in March and November 1995 were repulsed by President Burhanuddin Rabbani, but the capital fell in August 1996. Najibullah was publicly executed and strict Islamic law was imposed: television was banned, employment and education of females was forbidden, and the growing of beards by men was made compulsory. Afghanistan was the third country since 1979, after Iran and Sudan, to pass into the hands of an Islamic revivalist government.

Since 1996, the Taliban faced continuing military opposition from the ousted Rabbani and Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam. The Taliban, who were indirectly backed by the USA, made military gains January–April 1997, leaving Mazār-e Sharīf, situated in the far north, as the only major city outside their control. The Taliban government was officially recognized by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan. In October 1997 the country's official name was changed to The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In April 1998, a temporary ceasefire was agreed and a promise was made of peace talks with the opposition United Islamic Front for Salvation of Afghanistan (UIPSA). However, the ceasefire failed to hold, and in August 1998, by capturing four towns in the north, including Mazār-e Sharīf, the Taliban extended its grip to virtually all the country; the UN later reported in November 1998 that 6,000 civilians, the majority of them from the Hazara ethnic minority, had been slaughtered when the Taliban had captured Mazār-e Sharīf.

After a four-month lull, in January 1999 fighting resumed in the north of the country between the Taliban and its more moderate Islamic opponents. In July 1999 representatives of the Taliban and the opposition met in symbolic talks in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan. The talks were unsuccessful and were followed by the launching of a fresh Taliban offensive in opposition-controlled areas of the north.

International opposition United Nations (UN) sanctions on Afghanistan went into effect in October 1999, provoking mobs to attack UN offices in the capital, Kabul. The sanctions were intended to punish the Taliban for failing to expel the Saudi-born terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who had been sheltering in Afghanistan since 1996. In December 1999, Pakistan's central bank ordered all funds and property held in the country by the Taliban movement to be seized. At a meeting between the Taliban movement and its opponents in May 2000, there was an agreement to exchange prisoners, although no progress on peace proposals. In September 2000, the Russian Federation promised aid to former Soviet states of Central Asia if they were threatened by the Taliban, who in their latest advance had come close to the border of Tajikistan, where Russia had 10,000 soldiers.

War on terror After Osama bin Laden was named by the USA as the prime suspect for the 11 September terrorist attacks, US president George W Bush made it clear that the Taliban would face military action if they did not hand him over. On 19 September, Taliban mullahs (clerics) refused to concede. The following day, however, they offered to ask bin Laden to leave the country, but President Bush rejected all attempts at negotiation. The US led a military offensive against the Taliban in October. After a week of bombing, the Taliban offered to hand over bin Laden to a third party. The offer was again rejected by the USA, and the bombing continued.