Published June 28th, 2006 by Future Atlas
Afghanistan: trend — Taliban rising
The situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.
On NPR today Ahmed Rashid suggested that the Taliban insurgents are finding rising “sympathy,” if not full support, among segments of the population. They now enlist thousands of fighters, far more than they did a few years ago.
They also seem to be broadening their areas of operations. Rashid writes on ReliefWeb:
Taliban attacks have taken place in the north near the border with Central Asia and in the west near Iran, hundreds of miles from the main battleground in the south. Every day a school is burnt down or a teacher killed by the Taliban.
The Taliban’s resurgence raises the likelihood of negative scenarios, including full-scale war, partition, or even the extremist group someday regaining power.