Word: taliban
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Since then, Iran, Hamas and Hizballah have grown even stronger. Iran's strategic position became stronger with the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, and its pursuit of a nuclear program that has the potential of being diverted into building an atomic weapon. Capitalizing on the failure of the Fatah party of Yasser Arafat to deliver a Palestinian state in negotiations, Hamas triumphed in parliamentary elections last year. Despite being under severe pressure from Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the international community, Hamas recently seized military control of Gaza...
...fringes of the capital exploded, killing four. And on Saturday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the town of Paghman, 15 miles outside Kabul, in an attack on Italian military engineers building a footbridge. One soldier and eight Afghans were killed in that attack, including three children. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for all three of the past four days' bombings...
...situation has gotten worse," says security guard Abdul Saboor, who witnessed today's bombing. "These foreign forces came in the name of helping Afghans. Security is part of their mandate." But as the security situation deteriorates, Afghans are starting to lose faith. Six years after their ouster, the Taliban once again seem to be gaining a foothold, terrorizing the city they once controlled. "If the foreigners cannot do their job, then their existence is not appropriate any more," says Saboor. "They are not helping, so they should leave." For now, few in Kabul share Saboor's sentiments. But as deaths...
...Radicalism has been on the rise for several years in Pakistan. Many members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, fleeing the U.S. assault on their bases in Afghanistan, have taken advantage of the porous border between the countries to regroup in the remote, mountainous tribal areas of Waziristan. But Swat is different. The virtual takeover by extremists of a populous, settled area so close to Islamabad marks a significant advance in local militancy. "Swat is a symbol," says a Western military official based in Islamabad. "Mullah Fazlullah's influence is spreading - it doesn't look good...
...Islam-based political parties. By the time the military tried to intervene, a homegrown insurgency was in full swing. Fazlullah equated resistance to the government with an anti-American jihad that had already gained some support among Swat's Pashtuns, who belong to same ethnic group as Afghanistan's Taliban. The high incidence of civilian casualties from early bombing raids targeting extremist strongholds further alienated the populace. "The people want the militancy to stop," says Adnan Aurangzeb, a former MP and the grandson of Swat's last princely ruler. "The militants have stopped tourism and disrupted their lives...