Afghanistan drawdown leads British veterans to rue Taliban's resurgence

Nick Reynolds, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, warned terrorist group Al Qaeda could again base itself in the country should the Taliban take control. “The Taliban have basically been winning and gaining control of more districts and the countryside but not the cities,” he told The National. “If that happens, and the likely outcome is that it will, for the Afghan people it will be a disaster. “The Taliban has always sheltered Al Qaeda, and their goal was to strike internationally. That is the risk to us.”