The Taliban is the 'only team on the field' to quell Afghanistan's ISIS-K threat

Taliban fighter.
(Image credit: HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)

Don't expect a "miracle" from disparate anti-Taliban Afghan forces, Khalid Noor, the son of former provincial governor Atta Noor, told The National. "We cannot take Afghanistan back in three months," he said.

That seems especially true since there's no sizeable, unified resistance within the country, but even if some of the leaders can come together in the coming weeks, the point may be moot. A western security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The National that the international community, which has not been aiding resistance forces anyway, is growing more resigned to the fact that they'll have to engage with the Taliban (the United Kingdom already has). That's in part because the group has the only real chance of quelling the threat from the Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.