Resistance to Taliban rule persists in Afghanistan

As the Taliban’s reign over Afghanistan enters its sixth year, the Taliban remains stronger, more unified, and better equipped than it was before September 11, 2001. Today, its flag flies across all 34 provinces and roughly 400 districts. Yet beneath an appearance of uncontested control, the Taliban faces its most serious combination of challenges since Kabul fell.

Relations with Pakistan have worsened, producing intermittent cross-border clashes and military operations. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which is waging an escalating insurgency inside Pakistan. The Taliban also continues to battle the Islamic State’s Khorasan Province, which has survived more than a decade of sustained pressure from the Taliban, the former Afghan government, and the United States.

At the same time, a persistent anti-Taliban resistance has expanded. The resistance began early, after the fall of Kabul, as forces aligned with the previous government tried but failed to hold territory in Panjshir province. After their initial defeat in September 2021, forces that would become the National Resistance Front (NRF), a major anti-Taliban resistance group, began guerrilla attacks. Now, dozens of organizations have announced their opposition to Taliban rule, while a smaller number regularly claim attacks. These groups have endured despite lacking territorial sanctuary or overt state sponsorship, two advantages previously enjoyed by the Northern Alliance, the Taliban, and many of the mujahideen factions that fought the Soviet Union.

“Our greatest achievement is that the resistance survived and expanded,” Ali Nazary, head of foreign relations for the NRF, told FDD’s Long War Journal. “The resistance is indigenous. The NRF is not an army sitting somewhere outside the country waiting to cross the border.”

As the anti-Taliban resistance enters its sixth year, the NRF, led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, and former Chief of General Staff Yasin Zia’s Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF) remain the two most active groups on the battlefield.

“The NRF has conducted more than 2,000 military operations against Taliban forces since the resistance began in 2021,” Nazary told Long War Journal.

This NRF attack claim is substantially higher than the 300-plus attacks the group has claimed on X. According to their posts, the NRF has focused most of its operations in Kabul, Herat province, and northern Afghanistan. In early August, the group claimed an attack in Herat, killing two Taliban fighters, followed by a claimed rocket attack on Taliban forces in Kunduz.

“We have increasingly emphasized intelligence, mobility, survivability, and the ability to strike Taliban security where they believe they are secure,” Nazary told Long War Journal.

As the NRF’s commander, Massoud is likely the most internationally recognized face of the anti-Taliban resistance. He travels frequently throughout Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, most recently attending the Iranian state funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Massoud’s travels are likely not only an attempt to garner resources, but also to remind the world that there is an alternative to the Taliban.

“Much of the world is exhausted by Afghanistan,” Nazary said. “This is an international political challenge.”

Yasin Zia’s AFF, while not as well-known internationally as the NRF, has actively fought the Taliban since 2022. It has focused its attacks in Kabul and the provinces of Baghlan, Parwan, Kapisa, Takhar, Kunduz, and, most recently, Badakhshan, where it has engaged in sustained fighting with Taliban forces in Zebak district.

“The AFF has now reached a stage where it is capable of organizing larger, front-line military operations against the Taliban,” Dawood Naji, head of the AFF’s political committee, told LWJ.

The AFF has also publicly claimed at least 20 operations in Kandahar province since 2022, underscoring its geographic reach. Kandahar, the spiritual homeland of the Taliban, is in southern Afghanistan and is majority Pashtun, which is not a natural base of support for a group led by a Tajik.

“The AFF is active in several parts of the country,” Naji said. “In the coming weeks and months, you will see our presence expanded into additional areas.”

Although the AFF and NRF have been the most active resistance groups over the past five years, two former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials of the previous regime have recently entered the battlefield. Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh’s Afghan Green Trend, which spent much of the past four years releasing sensitive Afghan government documents, began publicly claiming attacks against the Taliban this year. It most recently claimed attacks against Taliban oil tankers in the Salang Valley.

Former 215th Corps commander Lieutenant General Sami Sadat’s Afghan United Front (AUF) also commenced operations this year, launching its first attack on August 1 in Kandahar province. Since then, the AUF has claimed nearly 20 attacks across the country, focusing largely on Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

“Our preparation over the past three years has had only one purpose,” Sadat told LWJ. “So that when we start, we do not stop until Afghanistan is free.”

Other smaller anti-Taliban resistance groups have also been active across the battlefield. In mid-July, Sepahiyan-e Mihan, or the Homeland Soldiers Front, led by former Afghan commando Qayum Malang, commenced operations by briefly capturing the Yaftali Sufla district center in Badakhshan. Other groups, including the National Mobilization Front, the Freedom and Justice Movement, and the Afghan Liberation Movement, have also publicly claimed attacks across Afghanistan.

“Since beginning operations in September 2022, the ALM has conducted 59 operations,” Naser Waziri, an advisor to the Afghan Liberation Movement, told LWJ. “Countering the narcotics trade has been one of our principal focuses.”

With new groups claiming attacks more frequently, some analysts have expressed concern that the resistance could fragment further, leaving the battlefield crowded with organizations but lacking an overarching political or military strategy. However, resistance leaders contend that while they are not working under the same organizations, they are all working for the same goal: the removal of the Taliban regime.

“We regard the Afghanistan Freedom Front, or any resistance movement seeking to liberate Afghanistan, as partners in a common struggle rather than competitors,” Nazary said.

Afghanistan has a grim history of armed factions uniting against a common enemy but dividing over what should follow. After the collapse of Mohammad Najibullah’s Soviet-backed government in 1992, rival mujahideen factions fought for control of Kabul, devastating the capital and helping create the conditions for the Taliban’s rise. Nevertheless, resistance leaders say that they can succeed despite Afghanistan’s bloody history.

“We are united by the purpose of freeing Afghanistan from Taliban tyranny,” Sadat said. “We see no issues operating with different organizations, since we are all fighting under the tricolor flag and for a united Afghanistan.”

Shared opposition to the Taliban, however, does not by itself constitute a unified strategy. If the resistance is to become more than a persistent security challenge, its factions will need to improve operational coordination, expand the frequency and sophistication of their attacks, develop sustainable logistical networks, and articulate a credible political order to replace Taliban rule. The eventual ability to contest and hold territory would represent a far more consequential stage, but one that remains difficult without sanctuary, sustained resources, or meaningful outside support.

“Our ultimate objective is not simply the defeat of one group,” Nazary said. “It is the establishment of a legitimate political order based on the consent of the people.”

For now, the resistance remains far from an existential threat to Taliban rule. But its continued survival is significant. Despite lacking territorial sanctuary and receiving little overt foreign assistance, armed groups continue to strike a Taliban regime that is pursuing greater international recognition while denying Afghans meaningful political participation.

“People should know that there is another Afghanistan,” Nazary said. “There are men and women resisting the Taliban inside the country despite receiving almost no international assistance.”

Will Selber is a retired US CENTCOM foreign area officer with over 4 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the owner of Grumpy Combat Veteran on Substack.