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Taliban: Countries
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Taliban insurgents are maintaining strong opposition to NATO-led forces in Afghanistan. The last two years have seen the worst fighting in the country since coalition troops ousted the Taliban in 2001 with some 4,000 people believed to have been killed - about a quarter of them civilians. Public discontent in Afghanistan is growing over the rising number of civilian casualties and the government's failure to improve the lives of most Afghans.
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The Taliban is comprised of young men and boys of Afghan descent who have hardly lived in Afghan society. They were raised in refugee camps and trained in ultraconservative religious schools (madrasahs) in Pakistan. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates are the only countries that have granted the Taliban official recognition.
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The Taliban claim to have influence across most of the country and have extended their area of control from their traditional heartland in the south. They have a significant presence around Kandahar from where they carry out suicide attacks and roadside bomb blasts. The militants are even able to operate freely in Wardak province, neighboring the capital Kabul.
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While some Taliban leaders have claimed that the Taliban is tolerant of religious minorities, it reportedly has imposed some restrictions upon Shi'a Muslims in Taliban-controlled territory. For example, the Taliban allegedly orders Shi'a Muslims to confine their Ashura commemorations during the month of Muharram to their mosques and to avoid the public processions that are an integral part of Ashura in other countries with Shi'a populations.
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The Taliban had set a deadline of 7 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. Eastern time) Monday for authorities to meet their demands รข€“ the swap of Taliban prisoners for hostages. On Monday, the deadline was extended by 24 hours. The Afghan National Army says it has surrounded the area where the hostages are being held and is ready to act. But South Korean negotiators, who have flown into the country, and Afghan elders are pressing hard for a peaceful settlement.
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The Bush administration's dalliances with the Taliban may have even continued after the start of the bombing campaign against their country. According to European intelligence sources, a number of European governments were concerned that the CIA and Big Oil were pressuring the Bush administration not to engage in an initial serious ground war on behalf of the Northern Alliance in order to placate Pakistan and its Taliban compatriots. The early-on decision to stick with an incessant air bombardment, they reasoned, was causing too many civilian deaths and increasing the shakiness of the international coalition.
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