This has been increasingly seen as a likely development over recent months.

"Taliban" is a term that has been used as shorthand for the whole range of groups who have been fighting against the occupation. Some of these are dedicated to trying to restore the pre-invasion regime. Some of them probably just want the occupiers out, and a piece of the action along with the other warlords.

It seems likely enough that, as in Iraq, there are people who have been fighting the invaders who would be quite happy to dump Al Qaeda and maybe even deliver Bin Laden (or his body) as part of a deal that achieved that.

One way and another at some time there's going to be an accommodation between the Afghanis who have been fighting. That's how these things always work out.