Taliban uprising
The Taliban uprising began shortly after the Taliban regime was overthrown as a result of the war in Afghanistan in 2001 . The Taliban continue to attack Afghan forces, as well as American and other ISAF and NATO forces ; many terrorist incidents attributed to them were recorded. Al-Qaeda is closely linked to its activity. The war also spread to Pakistan , into the conflict in northwest Pakistan .
background
The Taliban emerged as an armed group on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late 1980s , at a time when Afghanistan was under Soviet occupation (1979–1989) and rallied Pashtuns (ethnic majority of the Afghan population) who opposed the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan Resisted. The Pakistani government was directly involved in establishing and strengthening the Taliban. At the time, Islamabad directly and indirectly supported the radical movement and trained fighters in Afghanistan; the United States aimed to harm the Soviet Union and financially supported the movement because of the Cold War .
The Taliban came to power in 1996, victorious in the civil war between Islamic groups that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 ; they established a reign of terror and introduced Sharia law : they oppressed women, persecuted ethnic minorities, promoted political cleansing and imploded the Buddha statues of Bamiyan, which were part of the world cultural heritage. In 2001, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the regime was overthrown by a US-led coalition for sheltering members of al-Qaeda , including its leader Osama bin Laden .
The conflict
After fleeing the American forces in the summer of 2002, the remaining Taliban regained their confidence and started the uprising that Mulla Mohammed Omar had promised the Taliban in the final days of power. In September 2002 Taliban forces were recruited in Pashtun areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan to start a " jihad " against the US-led government. According to Afghan sources and the United Nations , small mobile camps were set up along the border with Pakistan by al-Qaeda and the volatile Taliban to train new recruits in guerrilla and terrorist tactics. Most of the recruits were recruited from madāris or religious schools in tribal areas in Pakistan where the Taliban arose. The main bases, some with more than 200 people, were established in tribal areas in mountains in Pakistan by winter 2003.
The shift in focus and attention of the George W. Bush administration because of the Iraq war , the topography and isolation of the area, Pakistan's deep distrust of the US and the strengthening of al-Qaeda in the region fueled the growth of the Taliban uprising favored what became an obstacle for the US. Another problem is the cultivation of opium , as the current uprising has relied on the sale of opium to buy weapons, train its members and buy support. In 2001 Afghanistan produced nearly 11% of world opium consumption and is currently 93% of world production and drug trafficking accounts for half of Afghanistan's GDP .
The permeable border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, controlled by tribal leaders of the Pashtun ethnic group, is a stronghold of the Islamic Taliban and by al-Qaeda, Pakistan is accused of "looking past" the Islamist extremists of the Taliban. The US is dissatisfied with the permeability of the Afghan-Pakistani border, where there is a hotspot for Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda is freely active, and where Pakistani military operations have proven to be of little use. The Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistani secret service) is accused of having close ties to Islamic radicals and of cooperating with the insurgents.
Afghanistan has faced an unprecedented surge in violence. The UN calculated that around 1,500 civilians died in bomb attacks in 2007, 50% more than the year before. Between 2007 and 2008 there was a 40% increase in the number of deaths.
With Barack Obama's election as President of the USA, the focus of global military action in the war on terrorism moved from Iraq to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The "Obama Plan" provides for a defeat of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, financial aid for Pakistan, a strengthening of the US military presence in Afghanistan and negotiating with moderate members of the Taliban in order to turn it into a political party .