Q&A: What is the Taliban and what is going on in Afghanistan?
Taliban fighters stand guard at the main gate leading to the Afghan presidential palace, in Kabul. Picture: AP Photo/Rahmat Gul
The Taliban has returned to power in Afghanistan, ending 20-years of Western-led government rule.
Fighting has escalated in the past month, leading to the militant group seizing control of the capital.
Here, we look at who the Taliban are and what has led to their take over of the country.
The Taliban, a word which is translated as 'student', is an Afghan movement and military organisation that was formed in 1994.
Afghanistan from was under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 with a harsh form of Islamic law.
Under Taliban rule, women were largely confined to their homes and suspected criminals faced amputation or public execution.
The Taliban had also harboured Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the years before they carried out the September 11 attacks in 2001.
Those attacks sparked a US-led invasion that rapidly scattered al-Qaida and drove the Taliban from power.
In recent years and months, the Taliban has regrouped and toppled the Western-backed government.
The United States and their allies tried to transform Afghanistan, but after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country at the weekend, it left the Taliban in control.
In May, Nato and the US began to withdraw troops out of Afghanistan.
More than a year earlier, a peace deal between the Taliban and US (under former President Donald Trump) had been signed, meaning American troops would leave the country by May 1 – a date that was extended under President Joe Biden.
Despite the deal, the Taliban has still attacked Afghan forces and in May fighting intensified.
Over the summer months, they continued to claim a foothold in the provinces near various borders and in urban centres, making rapid progress.
On Sunday, after Ghani fled the country, the Taliban swept Kabul, with the capital having previously been the only major city in the country under government control.
After taking position at the presidential palace in Kabul, the Taliban declared the war over.
Yes. US military forces are still at the airport in Kabul, trying to manage a chaotic evacuation.
Thousands of Afghans fear a return to Taliban rule and are trying to flee the country through Kabul’s international airport.
Videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of people racing across the tarmac as US soldiers fired warning shots in the air.
Traffic in Kabul came to a standstill amid the chaos of the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 16, 2021
Latest here: https://t.co/GSAtZ8fiuN pic.twitter.com/3JQzGncPK4
The US embassy has been evacuated and the American flag lowered, with diplomats relocating to the airport to aid with the evacuation.
Other Western countries have also closed their missions and are flying out staff and civilians.
Officials in the US are said to be stunned by the pace of the Taliban’s takeover.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken told CNN, referring to the Afghan military.
On Saturday, President Joe Biden said he has been in “close contact” with his national security team on to protect US “interests and values as we end our military mission in Afghanistan”.
Mr Biden said in the statement that he “inherited” the 2020 peace deal that “left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001”.
He said he is the fourth US president to “preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan” and that there would not be a fifth.
According to the Minister for Foreign, there are 23 Irish citizens in Afghanistan.
Simon Coveney said that his department is working with 15 of them who are trying to flee the country.
The US has said it is committed to ending America’s troop presence in the country.
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