An Islamic fundamentalist political and military grouping that controlled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until late 2001. The Taliban militia was formed in 1994 by Islamic theological students in the south of the country with the intention of unifying Afghanistan. Rival Mujaheddin factions had been fighting since the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989. After initial reverses, the Taliban captured the city of Herat in September 1995 and advanced to take Kabul in August 1996. A strict Islamic code of law was immediately imposed, which debarred women from paid work and education and proscribed television. In the late 1990s the Taliban consolidated its hold on power and took further territory from their main opponents, an alliance of forces concentrated in the north‐east of Afghanistan. However, the regime remained internationally isolated and unrecognized, largely because of its support for international terrorism. Following the events of September 11, 2001, the Taliban’s links with al‐Qaeda provoked the USA to launch airstrikes on its command centres in Kabul and other cities (see war on terrorism). The regime collapsed within weeks. The Taliban was expelled from the cities and severely weakened, but it continued to wage a guerrilla war in Afghanistan. Its strength and influence began to recover in the mid-2000s, when it stepped up its attacks from its strongholds in Helmand province in the south of the country. Some limited talks were held with the Afghan government, but attacks continued, including one on the parliament building in Kabul in 2015. In July 2015, the Taliban confirmed that their secretive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, had died (in 2013); he was replaced by Mullah Mansour, who was opposed to any peace settlement with the Afghan government. Mansour was killed in a US drone attack in 2016. The Taliban increased its hold on areas in the south, and in autumn 2015 and 2016 surprised Afghani forces by attacking and holding, for a short time, the northern city of Kunduz, showing that they could reach out beyond their traditional areas.

The Pakistani Taliban, a similar but separate group, has conducted an insurgency against the Pakistani state since 2007.