A United Nations report from late April noted specific ties between the Taliban and terrorist group Al-Qaeda and said they show no indication of separating. The United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team noted the close ties between the two groups.

The Daily Wire reports:

During 2020, targets for assassinations broadened from government and security personnel to civil society activists, health-care workers, journalists, judges, prosecutors, religious scholars, intellectuals and, as noted above, prominent Afghan women. While responsibility for most assassinations went unclaimed, interlocutors of the Monitoring Team stated that approximately 85 per cent of them were carried out by the Taliban. In many cases, victims had been outspoken against the Taliban or had received threats previously from the group. …

The first quarter of 2021 suggests that this trend is continuing. In Kabul alone, between 25 January and 8 February according to a Member State, there were 33 major events recorded, including three assassination attempts against Afghan security and government officials, 16 improvised explosive device detonations and the identification on 2 February of a cache containing nine remote controlled magnetic improvised explosive devices, which are frequently used in assassinations. The increase in targeted assassinations has reportedly been primarily orchestrated by the Haqqani Network but is also said to have been favoured by Mullah Yaqub.

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As reported by the Monitoring Team in its eleventh report, the Taliban and Al-Qaida remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties.Member States report no material change to this relationship, which has grown deeper as a consequence of personal bonds of marriage and shared partnership in struggle, now cemented through second generational ties. Al-Qaida’s own strategy in the near term is assessed as maintaining its traditional safe haven in Afghanistan for the Al-Qaida core leadership.

The Monitoring Team takes note of assessments that have suggested a longer-term Al-Qaida core strategy of strategic patience for a period of time before it would seek to plan attacks against international targets again.