Life, death and the Taliban seeks to enhance America’s understanding of Taliban history in Afghanistan and Pakistan. At this crucial time in the U.S.-led war against the Taliban, Charlie Sennott recaps the group’s rise to power and looks at current political and counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. Photographer Seamus Murphy, who has long chronicled the shifts of power in Afghanistan, accompanied Sennott to Kabul for this report.

In addition to the videos above, GlobalPost’s Taliban project consists of the following text stories:

Blowback: What we don’t know about the Taliban, in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, is killing us.

War of ideas: Education is the frontline of the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and it is hard to know whose side the locals are on. This story examines one school for girls in Logar Province as a case study.

Counterinsurgency: Col. John Agoglia, director of the U.S. counterinsurgency training center in Kabul, says America “totally missed the boat.”

Funding the Afghan Taliban, by Jean MacKenzie: Could America be financing its own enemy, as contractors pay off the Taliban?

Funding the Pakistani Taliban, by Shahan Mufti: It’s hard to track the sources funding the Taliban in Pakistan, but experts say it’s not all drug money.

Life Under the Taliban, by Jean MacKenzie: While hindsight has bestowed upon the black-turbaned rulers the ominous aura of global jihadists, at the time that they took over Kabul — in September 1996 — the majority of the capital’s residents hailed them as saviors.

Timeline: Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould look at the history of Afghanistan — long a graveyard for empires — from 330 BCE to the present based on their book "Invisible History Afghanistan's Untold Story."