General Yasin Zia’s anti-Taliban resistance group is expanding its operational reach and conducting more lethal attacks.
As the world focuses on Ukraine, Israel, and Chinese revanchism, the war against the Taliban is heating up. Resistance groups still do not pose an existential threat to the Taliban’s iron grip over Afghanistan but have increased the rate and lethality of attacks during the Taliban’s third year in power. While most of the press focuses on Ahmad Massoud’s National Resistance Front (NRF), General Yasin Zia’s Afghan Freedom Front (AFF) is taking on a more prominent role in the anti-Taliban resistance.
Yasin Zia served in numerous roles in the former Afghan government. During most of America’s fateful final year in Afghanistan, Zia served as the Afghan Armed Forces chief of general staff (equivalent to the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and acting minister of defense. Before that assignment, he served in the National Directorate of Security, the former government’s premiere intelligence service. Zia was also appointed Governor of Takhar following the Taliban’s brief capture of Kunduz City in 2015, likely as an attempt to stabilize the north.
In March 2022, the AFF announced its formation. Shortly after, the group began conducting attacks on the Taliban, mainly centered in Kabul. According to the AFF, it has executed a total of 322 attacks. Since January 2024, the organization has conducted 78 operations, resulting in 239 Taliban killed, including 4 Taliban commanders, and 147 wounded.
“In 2025, we plan to place more political and military pressure on the Taliban,” General Yasin Zia told FDD’s Long War Journal. “We’re fighting for equality, justice, and to return the power to the Afghan people.”
The Manifesto of the Freedom Front of Afghanistan, published in 2024, lays out many of the group’s goals and principles. The AFF seeks to create “a new social contract that meets the needs and requirements of building a prosperous society endowed with freedom, equality, and human dignity.” Billing itself as a “progressive military-political organization,” the AFF’s manifesto essentially adheres to many of the same Western-oriented values that defined the ill-fated Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Manifestos, conferences, and speeches, while important, will not dislodge the Taliban and its allies from power. Although neither the AFF nor the National Resistance Front has yet to capture a single district, the AFF has expanded its operational reach and conducted attacks across 10 provinces, though its primary focus remains Kabul. The AFF has executed attacks on Taliban vehicles, government buildings, and checkpoints, and even an indirect fire attack on Kabul’s airport in mid-October. The AFF also posts videos of its attacks at a higher rate than the more established NRF, likely to prove its bona fides.
“In the beginning, most of our attacks were on small checkpoints,” Dauod Naji, head of the AFF’s Political Committee, told LWJ. “But our operations are becoming more sophisticated because we’re attracting more former Afghan Security Force members.”
The AFF’s leadership council has approximately 50 figures who lead numerous committees ranging from foreign policy to cultural and religious matters. According to the AFF, most of its fighters are former Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) members, which is why it claims its attacks are more precise and cause fewer civilian casualties.
“It is our responsibility to liberate our brothers and sisters,” Dauod said. “However, we must do it responsibly so as not to harm civilians.”
The AFF collaborates with the National Resistance Front and maintains friendly relations with Lieutenant General Sami Sadat’s Afghan United Front. However, these organizations are not under a single unified command, making their work of defeating the Taliban even more difficult. While the AFF has called for a unified front, there is yet to be any significant movement to create an organization similar to the famed “Northern Alliance.”
“We know that the Taliban is the mother of all other terrorist groups,” said Dauod. “Our fighters routinely collect intelligence or fight members of Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.”
As 2024 concludes, all eyes turn to the new Trump administration, though the Biden administration’s disastrous retreat from Afghanistan remains fresh on the AFF’s minds.
“First, we hope that the new administration learns from all of Biden’s mistakes,” said Daoud. “Second, the United States needs to halt all cooperation with Taliban, and it must recalibrate its relationship with Pakistan and Iran.”
While the Trump administration is filling out its cabinet with notable Afghan combat veterans (Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense and Mike Walz for national security advisor), it is far too early to tell if they will take a more uncompromising stand against the Taliban, let alone provide resources to burgeoning Afghan resistance groups. Nevertheless, as 2024 concludes, the Taliban is not only fighting a rejuvenated Islamic State but also a more active and lethal anti-Taliban resistance.
“We’re confident that we will continue to make meaningful achievements in 2025,” said Zia.
