The Taliban promised Washington during months of negotiations that the United States would never again be attacked from Afghan soil. Such a pledge would have included al-Qaida, which planned the 9/11 attacks from inside Afghanistan.
Yet jihad, or holy war, and a shared history continue to bind the two militant groups, and there's no evidence of a break in relations between the long-time allies. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the Taliban agreed to cut ties with al-Qaida as part of peace negotiations, which President Donald Trump abruptly called off last week.
The al-Qaida leadership still vows allegiance to Taliban chief Maulvi Hibatullah Akhunzada, and al-Qaida has been growing stronger in recent years, according to analysts and experts. The group has overcome setbacks from the establishment of a rival Islamic State affiliate in eastern Afghanistan and from US drone strikes that had reduced its numbers.
The militants even established a subsidiary in the region called al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, with ties to jihadi groups as far away as Myanmar.
"Since 2017, the group has recovered meaningfully," said Asfandyar Mir, a fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.
"There is no discernible evidence of a break or disjuncture between al-Qaida and the Taliban," Mir said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Instead, at least parts of the Afghan Taliban, such as the Haqqani Network, and al-Qaida continue to actively collaborate."
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