Taliban

Nearly 300 young musicians, their teachers and staff from their music school fled Afghanistan in fear for their lives as the Taliban took power. NPR caught up with them during their U.S. tour,

The U.S. government's goals frequently shifted, creating "20 one-year reconstruction efforts, rather than one 20-year effort," an inspector general's report says.

President Biden addressed the nation after images from the airport in the Afghan capital showed desperate people fleeing before the Taliban advance. He said he stands by his decision to withdraw.

For the past six years, the American NGO Ascend has helped Afghan girls train to become mountain climbers. To many, they represented a new hope for women in Afghanistan. Now the NGO is working desperately to help them escape the Taliban.

The militant group terrorized Afghans and was shunned by the world for its harsh rule from 1996 to 2001. The Taliban are more image conscious now but haven't changed any fundamental principles.

Speaking about the Taliban's ousting of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, Biden acknowledged, "The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we anticipated."

The president of the U.S.-backed Afghan government reportedly went to neighboring Tajikistan as the insurgency's forces swept into the capital Sunday.

Texas veterans of the war in Afghanistan hope a treaty between the U.S. and the Taliban will end two decades of fighting and bring a sense of closure. But…

The Taliban have kept up a drumbeat of attacks since their leader was killed last month in a U.S. drone strike. Hopes that a new leader might improve the climate for peace are fading fast.

Mullah Akhtar Mansour was a divisive figure within the Taliban, and the Afghan government saw him as an obstacle to peace.