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CNN Saturday Morning News

Ask CNN: What is the Taliban?

Aired October 27, 2001 - 08:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Nancy Peterson from Duluth, Minnesota asks: "What is the Taliban?"

PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Nancy, the Taliban are a group of religious students who came out of religious schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 1994, they seized the southern city of Afghanistan, Kandahar, and by 1996 had seized the capital, Kabul, and thereafter were able to secure most of the rest of the country.

The Taliban is made up predominantly of Pashtuns, which is an ethnic group which makes up about half the Afghan population but excludes other important ethnic groupings, for instance, the Tajiks, Hazars and Uzbeks, who are to be found in the Northern Alliance that is battling the Taliban.

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