Who are the Taliban?  The BBC's John Simpson has this assessment
of the different Taliban groups  The hardline Islamic Taliban
movement has proved to be a formidable fighting force in
Afghanistan and a major threat to its government.  The Taliban
also threatens to destabilise Pakistan, where they control areas
in the north-west and have been blamed for a wave of suicide
bombings and other attacks.   The announcement of Taliban plans
to open an office in Qatar in June 2013 was seen as a positive
step in those negotiations, but mistrust on both sides remains
high.  Hopes for peace talks were equally high early in 2012
before the Taliban in Afghanistan announced in a strongly-worded
statement in March of that year that they were suspending
preliminary peace negotiations with the US.  Austere rule  The
Taliban emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan
following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.  An
Afghan policeman investigates the site after Taliban fighters
attacked Kabul airport (10 June