Afghanistan: How the Taliban won over northern ethnic minorities
Posted on AllSides August 23rd, 2021
From The Center
The Taliban were able to turn many ethnic minorities against the U.S.-backed government, showing an adaptation by the militants. Part 2 of two.
When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, they faced stiff resistance across the country’s north from ethnic-based paramilitaries that resented the southern Pashtun militants. That resistance would prove decisive in 2001 when the same ethnic minorities, backed by U.S. air power, ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul.
This time around, the Taliban had a new strategy: Enlist minorities in the north and turn a Pashtun-based...
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