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Explosive violence by the Taliban

The Taliban are a predominantly Pashtum, Islamic fundamentalist group established in 1994, in the wake of the civil war following the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. They took over the country from 1996 until they were ousted by the US in 2001, when they regrouped in Pakistan and began reclaiming territory less than ten years later. They took Kabul in 2021, seeking to establish a strictly Sharia-governed Afghan state.

Over the past decade (2014-2023), AOAV has recorded 546 incidents of explosive weapons use attributed to the Taliban, all of which occurred in Afghanistan. The Taliban are the reported perpetrators of 6,576 civilian casualties (1,683 killed) and 2,563 armed actor casualties (1,501 killed).

IEDs account for 83% (5,463) of civilian casualties attributed to the Taliban, in particular car bombs (3,459 civilian casualties), non-specific IEDs (1,265), roadside bombs (465), and multiple IEDs (274). In addition, ground-launched attacks by the Taliban caused 1,022 civilian casualties: mortars (681 civilian casualties), rockets (302), missiles (33), non-specific shelling (4),and artillery shelling (2).

Suicide bombings represent 28% (153) of Taliban attacks, and caused 68% (4,444) of civilian casualties.

The majority of civilian casualties were recorded in Taliban attacks on public buildings, which account for 17% (1,103) of civilian casualties. Other locations impacted by attacks attributed to the Taliban include urban residential areas (911 civilian casualties), police stations (836), town centres (731), roads (649), and villages (325).

armed violence, explosive weapons, civilian harm, conflict zones, humanitarian impact, arms trade, UK defence, war reporting, casualty tracking, human rights, military accountability, public health and violence, post-conflict recovery, disarmament, international humanitarian law, AOAV, weapons regulation, urban warfare, conflict data analysis, security policy

15 Feb 2023

Case studies: the Taliban – Assessing the effectiveness of the Arms Trade Treaty, Part 10

Action on Armed Violence analyses the impact of the Arms Trade Treaty on civilian harm from explosive weapons in Aghanistan.

12 Jul 2022

Killing in the Shadows: AOAV details allegations British SAS killed Afghan civilians

SAS operatives in Afghanistan repeatedly killed detainees and unarmed men in suspicious circumstances: an investigation by AOAV in collaboration with BBC Panorama.

11 Nov 2021

British Special Forces hid evidence of Afghan killings

Senior military officers buried evidence that British troops were executing detainees in Afghanistan, the High Court has been told.

10 Nov 2021

Are British-sourced weapons fuelling violence in Afghanistan?

Concerns raised as 9,000 assault rifles and two military helicopters sent from Britain go unaccounted for.

4 Oct 2021

Afghanistan’s weapons cache – a lucrative business for smugglers but trouble for neighbours

Concerns of foreign-made weapons sent to Afghanistan no used to fuel conflict and violate human rights in neighbouring countries.

12 Sep 2021

The Devil’s Face: the suicide attacks on 9/11 remembered

This is an extract from Iain Overton's, AOAV's Executive Director, book: The Price of Paradise: how the suicide bombers shaped the modern age. It is published in memory of those killed two decades ago.

31 Aug 2021

Inheritance of loss: the weapons left behind for the Taliban in Afghanistan

The Taliban appear to have inherited 22,174 Humvees, 64,363 machine guns, 358,530 assault rifles, 33 Blackhawk helicopters, 176 artillery pieces, 126,295 pistols, andmuch, much more.

16 Aug 2021

Civilian casualties of explosive violence mount as Taliban capture Kabul, Afghanistan

The Taliban have entered Afghanistan's capital city Kabul and seized the presidential palace

6 Aug 2021

Taliban attack Kabul’s Green Zone as fighting rages in provinces

As the Taliban captures its first provincial capital and fighting rages across the provinces, Kabul's Green Zone suffers two car bombings.

10 May 2021

Explosion outside school in Kabul is deadliest in Afghanistan so far in 2021

An explosion caused by a car bomb and two other bombs outside a school in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday (8 May 2021) has left at least 85 people dead and around 147 injured.

4 May 2021

Afghanistan: suicide car bomb in eastern province proves to be deadliest blast so far this year

A suicide car bomb was detonated on Friday evening (30 April, 2021) in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 people and injuring more than 90 others.

20 Oct 2020

13 killed by suicide bomber targetting government offices in western Afghanistan

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes amid an uptick in violence by the Taliban. Representatives of the group are currently holding in-person peace talks with the Afghan and US governments.