‘The Taliban Have Not and Will Not Ever Change’
Ismail Khan, fabled warlord and former governor, is back again on the front lines to fend off the Taliban advance.
Afghanistan’s western city of Herat is fighting for its life. The Taliban have reached the city gates and for almost two weeks have been battling security forces and citizen militias raised by the warlord Ismail Khan.
Lynne O’Donnell is a columnist at Foreign Policy and an Australian journalist and author. She was the Afghanistan bureau chief for Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press between 2009 and 2017.
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