Who are the Afghan insurgents?
The most established group is the Taliban, led by Mullah Omar and others who held top positions in the Afghan government in the 1990s. The Taliban is strongest in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the south, where it has deep roots. US officials believe that senior leaders are based in Pakistan, possibly Quetta. • Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami A prominent ally under the Taliban umbrella is Hizb-e-Islami, a group formed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the 1970s to fight the Soviet-backed government and later the Soviet invasion. Throughout the 1980s, Hizb-e-Islami was an ally of Pakistan and the United States. After the US invasion in 2001, a faction of Hizb-e-Islami led by Hekmatyar joined the insurgency. It is strongest in the northern regions of the country, says Antonio Giustozzi, an Afghanistan expert at the London School of Economics. With its long history, Hizb-e-Islami may have extensive contacts in the government and police. While many Taliban fighters are poor and uneducated, Hi
