Anti-Taliban resistance groups claimed to have conducted 37 targeted operations across Afghanistan in September, including assassinations, assaults in Taliban strongholds in the south, and fighting over outposts in the northeast.

Five years after the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan’s armed resistance continues to expand despite lacking territorial sanctuary, overt state sponsorship, and meaningful international assistance. Although it remains far from an existential threat to Taliban rule, its persistence challenges the appearance of uncontested control.

The Afghan United Front has emerged as the first major Pashtun-led resistance organization to launch operations against the Taliban. The group’s likely focus on operations in southern Afghanistan would expand resistance organizations’ historical focus in the country’s north.
