UN Reports Significant Drop in Attacks by Anti-Taliban Groups in Afghanistan
The United Nations Security Council, in its latest report, stated that from January to July 2025, the National Resistance Front (NRF) claimed responsibility for 73 attacks and the Freedom Front for 43 attacks against the Taliban administration. According to the report, while such attacks continue, they remain sporadic and limited, posing no serious threat to Taliban rule.
The report noted a significant decrease in the number of attacks compared to the previous year. In 2024, the Freedom Front had carried out 83 attacks and the National Resistance Front reported 261 attacks, indicating a notable drop in these groups’ military activity this year.
Both the NRF and the Freedom Front are armed opposition groups that emerged following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. They have rejected the legitimacy of the Taliban regime and have claimed responsibility for several armed operations across different regions of the country since their inception.
Coinciding with the UN report, the Freedom Front on Thursday announced a guerrilla attack on a Taliban checkpoint in the city of Kunduz. According to the group, the operation occurred at around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 16, near a contracted fuel tanker and along the Kabul highway in Kunduz.
The Freedom Front claimed that the attack killed two Taliban members and wounded another. The Taliban administration had not issued an official response by the time this report was published.
Earlier, in July, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) had also reported that between February 1 and the end of April 2025, the NRF and the Freedom Front executed a total of 72 attacks against Taliban forces. According to UNAMA, 56 of these were attributed to the NRF and 16 to the Freedom Front.
