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KABUL: Thirteen years ago on September 11, 2001, the world changed as nearly 3,000 innocent people lost their lives and many more followed in the so-called war on terror.

But despite two conflicts that nearly crippled the American economy and another one looming on the horizon, Afghanistan remains unstable and vulnerable to extremists.

When the United States set out to depose the Taliban, which had harboured Al-Qaeda and its chief leader Osama bin Laden, life for ordinary Afghans arguably took a turn for the better. Under Taliban rule, unemployment had skyrocketed and there were reports of widespread persecution. Women were not even allowed to walk the streets unescorted by a man.

Majid Qarar, an Islamic Scholar, recalls those years, but he warns the Taliban is now operating outside the Afghan borders, insidiously seeking to infiltrate the country once again. "The Taliban are still enjoying a safe haven in Pakistan; they exist and their training camps exist. The Taliban are sending madrasah students every summer to Afghanistan in order to cause insecurity all over the country," he said.

Due to the September 11 attacks, Al-Qaeda became the principal target in a war that saw countless innocents lose their lives. Al-Qaeda is no longer the group it was then, having been driven out of Afghanistan and becoming fractured with offshoots involved in extremist movements from West Africa to Southeast Asia.

Afghanistan is also no longer the front line as many Arab fighters who joined extremist groups in Afghanistan have gone and instead taking up arms with the Islamic State (IS) - formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

While Al-Qaeda is weakened and there is no direct immediate threat from IS in Afghanistan, the region has not been purged of the threat.

"There are some differences between both groups. Most Arabs who were with the Taliban in Afghanistan have returned to their countries and are now helping with fighting in Syria and Iraq, said Omar Ansari, a businessman. For ISIS, Afghanistan is a bit far; they have many borders to cross in order to get over here. But the issue of extremism is still around Afghanistan."

Al-Qaeda proved to be a very perilous foe for Washington but experts the world over agree that nothing compares to the new danger posed by IS, fighting for territorial control in a security vacuum.

Meanwhile, the people of Afghanistan have learned from their bitter history never to let a group like Al-Qaeda or ISIS to come to power again and are pushing to restabilise the region and prevent the rebirth of extremism.

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Instability in Afghanistan 13 years after war on terror