Who Are The Taliban?

Taliban militants retook Afghanistan’s capital, almost two decades after they were driven from Kabul by US troops.

Although Afghan security forces were well funded and well equipped, they put up little resistance as Taliban militants seized much of the country following the withdrawal of US troops beginning in early July.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, abandoning the presidential palace to Taliban fighters.

But the question is who are the Taliban??

Formed in 1994, the Taliban or "students" in the Pashto language, were made up of former Afghan resistance fighters, known collectively as mujahedeen, who fought the invading Soviet forces in the 1980s. They aimed to impose Islamic law on the country -- and remove any foreign influence.

The group was rooted in rural areas of Kandahar Province, in the country’s ethnic-Pashtun heartland in southern Afghanistan.