8am: The emergence of a front named “Sepahiyan-e Mihan” (“Soldiers of the Homeland”) should not be assessed merely as the birth of another armed group alongside other anti-Taliban fronts. The main significance of this event lies in the fact that, contrary to Taliban expectations, the passage of time has not only failed to reduce the number of armed fronts against this group, but serious and clear signs of the formation of new fronts are now visible. After returning to power, the Taliban tried to create the impression that the war in Afghanistan had ended and that the group’s armed opponents had either been eliminated or lacked the capacity to reorganize. The emergence of new fronts now poses a serious challenge to this narrative. Even if these fronts are militarily small and lack the capacity to seize and hold a village, their very formation shows that the grounds for discontent and armed mobilization against the Taliban regime have not disappeared, and have in fact become more favorable. Of course, these fronts do not simply spring up like mushrooms. Their emergence requires a set of interwoven factors: a human network, financial and military resources, external support, and at least a minimal geographic base for activity. Click here to read more (external link).
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