Journalist Ali Latifi was in Kabul when a Taliban attack occurred. He discusses the aftermath of the blast in Afghanistan's capital and largest city.

The article discusses the formation and recruitment strategies of the Fatemiyoun Division, a militia composed of Shiite Afghan refugees, which was established around early 2014 to fight in Syria alongside Assad's forces. The militia, estimated to have between 8,000 and 14,000 fighters, was trained by the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah veterans. Initially, recruits were Shiite Hazara Afghans who had settled in Iran, but recruitment has since expanded to include undocumented Afghans seeking economic opportunities. Iran uses propaganda to frame the Syrian war as a Shiite struggle, exploiting the refugees' economic vulnerabilities and religious beliefs. The article also mentions the lack of political and security context knowledge among the fighters, as highlighted by a former Human Rights Watch researcher.