Four years after the Taliban’s return, the author says their “security restored” line clashes with sanctuary for militants. Atlantic Council and a UN 2025 monitor still list Al-Qaeda, TTP, IS-K, and ETIM/TIP among 20-plus groups. The test is whether Afghan soil still lets them organize.

Al-Qaeda: Zawahiri was killed in Kabul in 2022; UN says the group still trains and advises others. TTP: UN ~6,000 fighters in several Afghan provinces, with Taliban logistics, and attacks on Pakistan. IS-K fights the Taliban, still recruits (including Central Asians); State noted fewer attacks inside Afghanistan in 2023.

Judge the country by what groups can project from its territory, not only by calm in cities. Needs intel-sharing, border work, and monitoring—not treating it as a purely domestic Taliban test.

Four years since the Taliban came back to power, Afghanistan is still at the heart of a difficult contradiction, since the regime says that it has reestablished security. At the same time, terrorist groups continue to carry out operations from Afghan soil. According to the Atlantic Council’s most recent evaluation, the Taliban’s failure to stop militant organizations from operating within Afghanistan has now become one of the region’s most serious counterterrorism problems. The analysis highlights a situation in which terrorist groups can keep their sanctuary and reorganize and expand.

The issue goes beyond the number of militant groups in Afghanistan and is also about the relationships and the scope of operations surrounding them. The Atlantic Council lists Al-Qaeda, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as part of a broader extremist ecosystem. Likewise, the United Nations’........

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