Nationwide Uprising Rumors Rattle Kabul

Man in scarf stands before a rusted tank in a barren field — Photo: Trent Inness / Shutterstock

As the Taliban prepares to mark five years back in power, new Afghan resistance forces say they are turning the country into a nationwide battlefield against the regime’s claims of “total security.”

Story Snapshot

New resistance group Afghanistan United Front announces nationwide combat operations, including strikes in the Taliban’s southern stronghold.
Older resistance movements like the National Resistance Front and Afghanistan Freedom Front claim hundreds of attacks across more than half of Afghanistan’s provinces.
United Nations and European Union reporting confirms rising but still small-scale, guerrilla-style attacks focused in the country’s north and northeast.
Expanding anti-Taliban combat challenges the idea that Islamist rule brings “stability,” and raises new questions for U.S. policy after the 2021 withdrawal.

Resistance launches new nationwide offensive against Taliban rule

As Afghanistan nears the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, the Afghanistan United Front has gone public with a new phase of armed struggle, saying its combat operations now reach across the country. Led by former Afghan National Army lieutenant general Sami Sadat, the group announced “Operation Muharib” and released video of attacks on the key Kandahar–Spin Boldak highway in the Taliban’s southern heartland, along with three more strikes in northern provinces. The Afghanistan United Front describes itself as a nationwide organization that is expanding north while hitting the Taliban in areas the regime once considered fully secure.

The Afghanistan United Front’s emergence adds a fresh layer to an already crowded resistance landscape, where legacy anti-Taliban groups have spent several years rebuilding underground networks. The Afghanistan United Front’s choice to attack road links in Kandahar and near Spin Boldak matters because those routes connect the regime to Pakistan and carry trade and military traffic that help keep the Taliban government afloat. By striking there while also opening fronts in the north, the group signals a strategy aimed at stretching Taliban resources and challenging claims that the movement has restored calm after the United States pulled out.

Older resistance fronts claim broad reach and rising tempo

Alongside the Afghanistan United Front, the National Resistance Front and the Afghanistan Freedom Front continue to present themselves as nationwide armed movements fighting Taliban rule. National Resistance Front leader Ahmad Massoud told Cable News Network that his forces now have “networks and operations” in nearly 20 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces and command over 5,000 permanent fighters. The National Resistance Front claims it carried out 401 targeted operations across 19 provinces between March 2024 and March 2025, saying those attacks killed 651 Taliban fighters, with heavy focus on Kabul and central and northern regions.

Independent analysis of National Resistance Front activity backs up the trend of more frequent and geographically wider attacks, even if the group does not hold ground. One policy study notes that since January 2024, the National Resistance Front has claimed more than 207 successful operations, driven by better recruitment and intelligence on Taliban targets. Another security assessment concludes the Taliban is “struggling to defeat” a growing National Resistance Front insurgency in northeastern Afghanistan, where resistance attacks have spread beyond their original strongholds in Panjshir and the Andarab valley into provinces like Takhar. These findings portray a movement that remains guerrilla in nature but is no longer limited to one valley or a single region.

Afghanistan Freedom Front spreads attacks but stays guerrilla

The Afghanistan Freedom Front has followed a similar path, moving from a handful of provinces to claiming activity across almost the entire map. By 2025, the Afghanistan Freedom Front said it had expanded military operations to 31 provinces, far beyond its early focus on Kabul and nearby areas. Detailed reporting shows the group executed at least 322 attacks since its formation, with 78 operations from January 2024 that it says killed 239 Taliban fighters, including four commanders, and wounded 147 more. Analysts note that while the Afghanistan Freedom Front has not captured or held a district, it has widened its reach to 10 provinces and sharpened its targets.

Joint review of both major resistance groups by an information research center found that from January to October 2024, the National Resistance Front and Afghanistan Freedom Front together claimed 294 attacks across 17 Afghan provinces. The National Resistance Front accounted for about three quarters of those claimed operations, while the Afghanistan Freedom Front made up the rest. That same study highlights a shift toward urban warfare, with Kabul and northern cities at the center of resistance activity as fighters aim at Taliban checkpoints, bases, and intelligence operatives rather than trying to hold territory.

Independent data: resistance real but limited and localized

United Nations and European Union sources offer a more cautious picture that still confirms a steady rise in anti-Taliban violence. A June United Nations report cited by Cable News Network recorded only 29 operations formally attributed to the National Resistance Front in a period when the group itself claimed far more, but the same report acknowledged an overall increase in anti-Taliban actions in the first half of the year. European Union asylum guidance notes that by late 2022, there were at least 22 armed groups opposing the Taliban in 26 provinces, with confirmed attacks mainly in eight provinces and resistance activity focused in the northeast.

More recent United Nations reporting, summarized by Kabul Now, states that from November 2025 through January 2026 the Afghanistan Freedom Front and National Resistance Front claimed responsibility for 36 attacks, 14 of which the United Nations could confirm. A broader security survey finds that at least thirteen armed groups have formed since the Taliban takeover and that armed resistance is “on the rise,” but still happening on a small scale and in a sporadic way. For American readers, these facts underline a key point: the Taliban’s promise of order after the United States withdrawal has not been met, yet the resistance also lacks the mass support and heavy weapons needed to seriously threaten the regime—at least for now.