SUMMARY
The Taleban is a rebel movement which has primarily been found in Afghanistan, where it has both fought against the government in intrastate armed conflict and been in control of the country. Founded in the mid-1990s this Sunni Muslim group has had as its main goals to overthrow the government of Afghanistan, restore peace and order to the country and to create and Islamic state ruled by sharia law. The word "Taleban" is Pashto and can be translated into "seekers", but the term is most often used to describe students (plural of Talib) in Islamic schools, which underscores the movements religious focus.
Precise information on the formation of the Taleban is scarce and shrouded in uncertainty, but it is believed that the core leaders began to organize the movement during the first half of 1994. Most of the founding leaders knew each other from before, as they belonged to the southern Durrani Pashto tribes rather than the Ghilzai Pashto tribes which had traditionally constituted the local elites of the Pashto tribes. Many of the top-ranking members, including the chosen leader Mullah Omar, had also often fought together in different Mujahideen factions, as well as studied together at Islamic schools in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At the time of the formation of the group most of the territory south of Kabul was controlled by forces of the Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan and other Afghan warlords. The groups first violent activities were therefore aimed against these forces, and the group even received support from the government. Having driven off most warlords the Taleban consolidated their control in the south, with the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan and Zabul becoming the Taleban heartland. These areas are also dominated by the Pashto tribe, from which the Taleban draws the bulk of its support.
It was not until mid-February 1995 that the Taleban began to confront the army of the government of Afghanistan, when Taleban troops were positioned just outside Kabul. The Taleban movement had quickly grown in strength since its appearance in Afghanistan, attracting many young recruits among Afghan refugees who shared a common perception that the Mujahideen had betrayed the people through the constant fighting and abuses that followed the Soviet troop withdrawal in 1989. The government -and its many allied warlords- could not withstand the onslaught of the highly motivated and numerous Taleban, who seized power on 28 September 1996 thus becoming the government side in the conflict episode that followed.
Before seizing power the government of Afghanistan accused Pakistan of supporting the Taleban, citing among other things the presence among the Taleban forces of tanks and heavy weapons. Some support definitely came from Pakistan in 1994 and 1995, but the exact type of support remains unclear.
During its time in government the Taleban instituted sharia law throughout the country, receiving widespread international condemnation for the destruction of Afghanistan's cultural heritage and the perceived discrimination of women, who were (among other things) barred from education and work. When consolidating its hold on power the Taleban, then being the government of Afghanistan, made use of one-sided violence.
The first Taleban regime was ousted in 2001 by the joint actions of an international alliance (dominated by the USA) and UIFSA (United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan); a loose alliance of Afghan warlords opposed to the Taleban. International support for the ousting of the Taleban came as a consequence of the governments reluctance to hand over the members of al-Qaida that the USA implicated in the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
After being ousted the Taleban movement retreated southwards and regrouped in Pakistans tribal areas and in the areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. In 2003 the movement again launched an armed struggle against the government, this time created from a broad-based conference on Afghanistan's future. The Taleban also proclaimed war on the tens of thousands of foreign troops that had been deployed to support the new government (a USA-led multinational coalition and the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF). In the context of this armed conflict the Taleban made use of one-sided violence.
Initially the Taleban were based in northern Pakistan and the Afghan-Pakistani border, but the group later established strong footholds in their former southern heartlands. In its effort to topple the government and expel the foreign forces the Taleban received support from tribal fighters in Pakistan who gave shelter and safe havens. Later the group also entered into operational alliances with al-Qaida forces present in Pakistan and south-eastern Afghanistan and with Gulbuddin Hekmatyars Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan group. Cooperation has not always been easy, and violence has erupted between the Taleban and Hizb-i Islami on several occasions. Estimates of the groups strength since its resurgence vary greatly; in 2021 they were believed to control between 50,000 and 60,000 fighters.
Since its inception, and for the following 20 years, the group was led by one of its founders, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who had fought against the Soviets before founding the Taleban movement. Born in Kandahar he remained, even after seizing power, a secretive figure, schooled mainly in Islamic madrasas. After the Taleban were ousted from government he was believed to be in hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas, remaining in control of the movement. In 2015, it became clear that Mullah Omar had died in 2013 and his deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, was elected leader of the group. However, tension mounted within the Taleban movement over the new leader, and one faction of the group, led by Mullah Mohammad Rasool Akhund and Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, started fighting the Taleban led by Mullah Mansour.
Taleban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a US drone in May 2016 and Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada took over the leadership of the group.
Following the withdrawal of foreign (primarily US) troops in 2021, the Taleban once again seized power in Afghanistan. On 15 August 2021, the movement took control of the capital Kabul, thus becoming the government side in the conflict episode that followed.
The Taleban movement has been involved in the intrastate, non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.
