On the attack: Taliban spread terror in Afghanistan

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The Taliban are relentless and brutal fighters. They know the dusty plains and cave-pocked mountains of Afghanistan as well as they know the cold steel of their rifles.

In the 1990s, these men ruled Afghanistan and imposed their strict religious lifestyle on the entire country. They also protected Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Helping Al Qaeda was a big mistake. U.S. forces went after the terrorists, and they arrested or chased off the Taliban.

The Taliban were down, but they weren't out. They have slowly grown stronger. Today, the Taliban are making a comeback, and they are spreading fear across Afghanistan. Taliban fighters are attacking foreigners, U.S. troops, and even schoolchildren with ambushes and suicide bombings. They have shut down or burned more than 600 schools and attacked government offices. Families often wake in the night to find letters warning them not to cooperate with the country's new, democratically elected government.

On January 14, the Taliban hit the heart of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. Three men burst into the Serena hotel, and one blew himself up. He killed eight people, including an American, a Norwegian, and a native of the Philippines. After the attack, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid swore there would be more bloodshed. "We will target all these restaurants in Kabul where foreigners are eating," Mujahid told The Associated Press. "We have [fighters] in Kabul right now, and soon we will carry out more attacks against ... foreigners."

WHAT THEY WANT

What do the Taliban want? Taliban leaders say that they want all foreigners out of Afghanistan and a return to Sharia law. Sharia is a legal system based on the Koran, Islam's holy book. It dictates almost every aspect of people's lives: what they should believe, how they should behave, even what they may eat, and how they must dress.

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The word Taliban means "religious students" in Arabic. Many of the Taliban attended Islamic schools before becoming fighters in Afghanistan. Led by the mysterious one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban gained power in the Asian country after helping turn back an invasion by forces of the Soviet Union in 1989. (See Time Trip). The Taliban did away with Afghanistan's then-communist government and imposed strict Islamic rule.

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Any activity seen as anti-Islamic or Western by the Taliban was banned. Dancing and watching movies or television were forbidden. Women could not have jobs or even walk outside their homes without a male relative. Girls could not attend school. Men had to wear full beards, and women had to be covered from head to toe. Breaking the rules could bring violent and sometimes deadly consequences. A person caught drinking alcohol, for example, could be flogged with a cane or whip.

The Taliban let Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden run his terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and that enraged the United States. In 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airplanes filled with people and crashed them in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. The attacks killed almost 3,000 people. U.S. officials demanded bin Laden be arrested. When the Taliban refused, U.S. troops invaded.

DRUG MONEY

One source of the Taliban's growing strength is the money it makes from selling opium. Opium comes from poppy plants. It is used in some medicines, but it also is the source of heroin, a dangerous and highly addictive illegal drug. Afghanistan produces about 93 percent of the world's illegal opium.

Afghanistan's elected president, Harold Karzai, says stopping the drug trade is vital to his country's survival. "If we fail, we will ... fail as a nation, and we will fall back into the hands of terrorism," he says.

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U.S. officials offered to spray the poppy fields with herbicides, chemicals that kill plants. But Karzai's government fears that would only turn Afghan farmers against the country's new democracy and help the Taliban.

MORE TROOPS

The United States and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have troops in Afghanistan to help keep the peace. U.S. President George W. Bush plans to send 3,200 more. In Bush's view, defeating the Taliban is essential to winning the worldwide war on terrorism.

TIME TRIP

The Conquerors 330 B.C.-A.D. 1747

More than 2,300 years ago, Alexander the Great conquered the land that would become Afghanistan. After his sprawling empire crumbled, other invaders swept through. The ruthless Genghis Khan was among them. The clans of Afghanistan united for the first time in 1747. Islam became the people's guiding religion.

British-Afghan Wars 1747-1921

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Tribal readers led Afghanistan in its early years. In the 1800s, the British waged three wars in an effort to take over, but they never gained full control Britain wanted Afghanistan as a buffer to protect its holdings in India from Russia.