Taliban resurgent

last updated 8 January 2015

Somewhere in Afghanistan

The Taliban once again control a large area of Afghanistan, Mullah Omar boasted on an audiotape broadcast this week. “Losing the capital of Afghanistan does not mean the Taliban have finished,” said the movement’s fugitive leader. The tape was reportedly recorded at a recent military council in southern Afghanistan. More than 600 people have died in renewed fighting since April, including 150 insurgents killed last week. Foreign military and civilian officials have been losing faith in President Hamid Karzai, The Washington Post reported this week. “Nearly five years on, there is no rule of law,” said one Western diplomat. “The Afghans know it is all a charade.”