Which local Islamist militant group desires control of Afghanistan?

• A. Taliban
• B. Al-Qaeda
• C. ISIS-K
• D. Haqqani Network

Answer: (A)

The key idea is identifying the local Islamist movement whose political aim is to govern Afghanistan. The Taliban fit this most clearly because they are an Afghan-based movement whose central objective has long been to rule the country under their interpretation of sharia. They emerged specifically as a political project to seize and hold national authority, and they have held governing power in Afghanistan in different periods, most recently after foreign forces withdrew.

Al-Qaeda is a transnational jihadist network with global aims and historic ties to Afghanistan, but it does not seek to govern Afghanistan as its sole project. ISIS-K is a rival local faction in Afghanistan that seeks its own rule, often in opposition to the Taliban, rather than a single cohesive movement aiming to govern the country as its main goal. The Haqqani Network is a powerful Afghan insurgent faction that operates closely with the Taliban and shares the goal of influencing and controlling Afghanistan, but it is best understood as part of the broader Taliban leadership rather than the primary local actor negotiating state governance on its own.