AFGHANISTAN: WAR WITHOUT END 2 OF 3

AFGHANISTAN: WAR WITHOUT END PART 2 OF 3

-Taliban-

The Taliban are an extremist and ethnic fundamentalist Sunni Muslim Pashtun movement that ruled most of Afghanistan from 1995 until 2001, when their leaders were removed from power by a cooperative military effort between the United States, Great Britain and the Northern Alliance. Committed fundamentalist insurgents, often described as "Taliban" in the media, originating in the Frontier Tribal Areas of Pakistan, are currently engaged in a protracted guerrilla war and terrorist campaign against the current government of Afghanistan and allied NATO forces.

The movement was headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. Beneath him were "a mixture of former small-unit military commanders, Madrasah teachers, and a small group of snivelling worm-toungues" and then a rank and file most of whom had studied in Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. The overwhelming majority of Taliban movement were Pashtuns from southern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, along with a small number of volunteers from Eurasia to China. The Taliban received valuable training, supplies and arms from the Pakistani government, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and many recruits from Madrasahs for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, primarily ones established by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam JUI.

Although in control of Afghanistan's capital (Kabul) and much or most of the country for five years, the Taliban regime, or "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," gained diplomatic recognition from only three states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Human rights abuses denied it United Nations recognition and most world's states, including Iran, India, Turkey, Russia, USA and most Central Asian republics opposed the Taliban and aided its rival (Afghan Northern Alliance).