The Taliban captured Kunar province on 14 August 2021. A Local Asset from our Native Environment Matrix recorded this video in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Kunar Province
Most observers see Afghanistan’s southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar as being the heart of the country’s insurgency. Northeastern Kunar Province, however, has been described in mythic proportions as the "most dangerous terrain for U.S. forces anywhere in the world.” U.S. soldiers who fight a bold enemy in Kunar Province’s rugged mountains have dubbed it Afghanistan’s “Heart of Darkness.” In 2007, the province saw 973 insurgent attacks making it the second most active Afghan province after Kandahar. The Kunar battlefield is not the flat open plains or scrub covered desert mountains of the south, but forested mountains similar to those found in Colorado’s Rockies.

The combination of lush tree cover, rugged mountains, cross-border sanctuaries, and prickly mountain tribes that resent outside rule is a volatile mixture that has made Kunar prime insurgent territory. Kunar Province has been a “no-go zone” since its people rose up against the Communists in 1978.

The capital of Kunar province is Asadabad. As of 2021, the population of Kunar is roughly 500,000. Most of the population lives in rural areas. Kunar is one of the four "N2KL" provinces (Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman). N2KL is the designation used by the U.S. and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan for the rugged and very violent region along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border opposite Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Kunar is the center of the N2KL region. Similar to Helmand and Kandahar provinces, Kunar experiences a “bleed over” of tribes and loyalties between Pashtuns living in Afghanistan and those found in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan 2.

N2KL is the designation used by the United States and Coalition Forces for an area in Regional Command East comprising four provinces of Afghanistan; Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar, and Laghman. These provinces border Pakistan and see incredibly high rates smuggling: weapons, narcotics, lumber, copper, gemstones, marble, vehicles, and electronic products, as well as ordinary consumer goods. Kunar is also a strategic province due to its plethora of natural resources, including water, agricultural land, timber, and gems.

The vast majority of Kunar’s population is Pashtun, with the Pech-based Safi tribe the most prominent. However, if one goes up the Kunar Valley, into the Pech and Korengal Valleys which reach up to the remote mountains of Nuristan, one encounters non-Pashtun tribes previously known as “Kafirs” or pagans. The Kafirs were conquered by the Afghan-Pashtun state in the late nineteenth century and converted to the nur (light) of Islam; their land was renamed Nuristan.

Reportedly, the Korengal Valley in Kunar province was the deadliest place in Afghanistan. The population is historically hostile to any outside influence, including any Afghans from outside the valley. The Korengalis have successfully fought off every attempt to subdue their valley, including the Soviets in the 80s, the Taliban rule in the 90s, and the U.S. military.

“From the Soviet days in Afghanistan, Kunar’s importance has been clear. This is a border province and trouble here can break the central government. Whoever has been defeated in Afghanistan, his defeat began from Kunar. Hence, everybody is terrified of this region. The Soviets were defeated in this province and NATO knows that if it is defeated here it will be defeated all over Afghanistan.”

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