El Kaide is regrouping in Afghanistan, under the Taliban’s renewed control, 25 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks. According to a report by The Washington Post citing Western intelligence officials, the organization and its affiliates have established at least 8 training centers over the past three years, taking advantage of the vacuum created by the withdrawal of US troops in 2021. The camps provide training in encryption, artificial intelligence and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as weapons, explosives and guerrilla tactics. In Afghanistan, where ISIS-K is also active, terrorist organizations are reportedly organized in at least 14 of the country’s 34 provinces. A United Nations report says the Taliban is providing a permissive environment for these organizations. According to officials, the organizations are focusing on regional conflicts rather than large-scale attacks against the US and its allies. El Kaide, whose core cadre numbers no more than a hundred militants, is reportedly providing training to Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan, including in suicide bombing.
Why it matters
The development in Afghanistan shows that the country is not merely an area associated with attacks in the past, but has become a setting where different organizations operate within the same security vacuum. The inclusion of encryption, artificial intelligence and unmanned aerial vehicles in the training indicates that the organizations are adapting to changing conditions in terms of their methods and capabilities. El Kaide’s shift toward regional conflicts instead of large-scale attacks directly targeting the US and its allies makes it more difficult to assess the nature of the threat and the actors it affects. The United Nations assessment that the Taliban administration is providing a permissive environment for these structures also demonstrates that Afghanistan’s security problem is not limited to the presence of the organizations. The open question is whether this structure will remain confined to regional conflicts.
Background
Kaide is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we published a news article mentioning this name in the last 90 days; that article is dated September 1, 2026.