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Taliban Declares 'War Is Over,' Seeks to Project More Moderate Image, American Evacuation Continues 

August 16, 2021

Taliban fighters take control of the presidential palace in Kabul, August 15, 2021

Taliban fighters flying their flag in Herat, August 15, 2021	Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit military corps in Kabul, Afghanistan August 14, 2021.

Taliban fighters in the city of Farah, southwest of Kabul, August 11, 2021	Afghan refugees in Kabul, August 11, 2021

 

Taliban declares 'war is over' as president and diplomats flee Kabul

Summary

Taliban says form of new regime to be announced soon Ghani says he left country to avoid bloodshed Scenes of chaos as diplomats, Afghans flee to airport U.S. scrambles to evacuate citizens, Islamist group seeks to project more moderate image.

KABUL, Aug 16, 2021 (Reuters) -

The Taliban (Movement) declared the war in Afghanistan was over after insurgents took control of the presidential palace in Kabul as U.S.-led forces departed and Western nations scrambled on Monday to evacuate their citizens.

President Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as the Islamist militants entered the city, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed, while hundreds of Afghans desperate to leave flooded Kabul airport.

"Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and their sacrifices for 20 years," Mohammad Naeem, the spokesman for the Taliban's political office, told Al Jazeera TV.

"Thanks to God, the war is over in the country."

Naeem said the type and form of the new regime in Afghanistan would be made clear soon, adding the Taliban did not want to live in isolation and calling for peaceful international relations.

"We have reached what we were seeking, which is the freedom of our country and the independence of our people," he said. "We will not allow anyone to use our lands to target anyone, and we do not want to harm others."

In Washington, opponents of President Joe Biden's decision to end America's longest war, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said the chaos was caused by a failure of leadership.

American diplomats were flown by helicopter to the airport from their embassy in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan district as Afghan forces, trained for years and equipped by the United States and others at a cost of billions of dollars, melted away.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said early on Monday that almost all embassy personnel, including Ambassador Ross Wilson, were at the airport and the American flag had been lowered and removed from the embassy compound. read more

At Kabul airport, hundreds of Afghans waited for flights, some dragging luggage across runways in the dark, while women and children slept near security corridors.

A source at the airport said some scuffles broke out among people unable to get a place as departures were halted.

Local television 1TV reported that multiple explosions were heard in the capital after dark, but the city was largely quiet during the day on Sunday.

Aid group Emergency said 80 wounded people had been brought to its hospital in Kabul, which was at capacity, and that it was only admitting people with life-threatening injuries.

In a Facebook post, Ghani said he had left the country to avoid clashes with the Taliban that would endanger millions of residents of Kabul.

He did not say where he was and it was not clear where he was headed or how exactly power would be transferred following the Taliban's lightning sweep across Afghanistan.

Al Jazeera earlier showed footage of what it said were Taliban commanders in the presidential palace with dozens of armed fighters.

Taliban militants waving a Taliban flag on the back of a pickup truck drive past a crowded street at Pashtunistan Square area in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in this still image taken from social media video uploaded on August 15, 2021. Social media website/via REUTERS

Some local social media users in Kabul branded Ghani a coward for leaving them in chaos. A tweet from the verified account of the Afghan Embassy in India said: "We are all banging our heads in shame."

SHARIA

Many Afghans fear the Taliban will return to past harsh practices in their imposition of (their form of) sharia, or Islamic religious law. During their 1996-2001 rule, women could not work and punishments such as stoning, whipping and hanging were administered.

The militants sought to project a more moderate face, promising to respect women's rights and protect both foreigners and Afghans. read more

"We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection," Naeem told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Taliban and all other parties to exercise the utmost restraint, and expressed particular concern about the future of women and girls in Afghanistan. read more

The Pentagon authorized another 1,000 troops to help evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghans who worked for them, a U.S. official said. read more

A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters on Sunday evening in Washington that about 500 people, mostly Americans, had so far been evacuated, and that the number would rise to 5,000 a day when all planned U.S. forces are in Kabul.

European nations, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, also said they were working to get citizens as well as some Afghan employees out of the country.

Russia said it saw no need to evacuate its embassy for the time being. Turkey said its embassy would continue operations.

AMERICAN EXIT

Asked if images of helicopters ferrying personnel were evocative of the United States’ departure from Vietnam in 1975, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News: "Let's take a step back. This is manifestly not Saigon." read more

Biden has faced rising domestic criticism after sticking to a plan, initiated by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan by Aug. 31.

In a statement on Sunday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell blamed Biden for what he called a "shameful failure of American leadership".

"Terrorists and major competitors like China are watching the embarrassment of a superpower laid low," McConnell said.

Naeem said the Taliban would adopt a policy of non-interference in others' affairs in return for non-interference in Afghanistan.

"We do not think that foreign forces will repeat their failed experience in Afghanistan once again."

Reporting by Kabul and Washington bureaus; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne, Philippa Fletcher, Daniel Wallis and Jane Wardell; Editing by Peter Cooney

Taliban declares 'war is over' as president and diplomats flee Kabul | Reuters

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Ghani Leaves Afghanistan as Taliban Enter Kabul, Set to Take Control

By Ayesha Tanzeem, Ayaz Gul

Voice of America, August 15, 2021 05:35 PM

KABUL/ISLAMABAD -

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, along with his vice president and other senior officials, flew out of Afghanistan on Sunday, setting the stage for Taliban insurgents to regain power in the country 20 years after a U.S.-led military invasion ousted them.   Top members of the Taliban military commission arrived at the presidential palace in Kabul as Taliban fighters took positions at key posts in the city.    

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Sunday evening that the fighters were directed to guard security posts and other installations in Kabul to “prevent chaos and looting after Afghan forces abandoned them.” Mujahid urged the residents to remain calm, saying the move was meant to ensure the security of the people.   Ghani issued a statement on Facebook later Sunday, saying he left the country to prevent bloodshed. He landed in Tajikistan then left soon after for an unknown destination, RFE/RL reported.

“Taliban have won the judgement of sword and guns and now they are responsible for protecting the countrymen’s honor, wealth and self-esteem,” he wrote. “They are now facing a new historical test; either they will protect the name and honor of Afghanistan or they will prioritize other places and networks. … It is for Taliban to assure all the people, nations, different sectors, sisters and women of Afghanistan to win the legitimacy and the hearts of the people.”   Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, posted a video on Facebook, criticizing Ghani.

Abdullah confirmed that Ghani had left the country and said, “I feel the former president left the country and people in a bad position. God will make him accountable.”   

Ghani's whereabouts and destination are currently unknown.    Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who is said to have accompanied Ghani and the others who left, in a tweet vowed not to bow to the Taliban, but he did not respond in the message to reports of him leaving the country.  

Afghanistan Defense Minister Bismillah Mohammadi in a tweet lamented, in an apparent reference to Ghani and his associates, that they “tied our hands behind our backs and sold the homeland, damn the rich man and his gang.” 

The Taliban swept through most of the country in a little more than a week and reached the gates of the capital, Kabul, on Saturday. The insurgents initially stayed out of the city, maintaining they wanted a "peaceful transition of power” to spare Kabul of any violence.

The United Nations urged the Taliban to “exercise utmost restraint in order to protect lives” in a statement from the secretary-general Sunday night, adding that all humanitarian organizations must be allowed to provide assistance unimpeded.

The secretary-general is to address the Security Council at an open meeting on Afghanistan Monday morning.

Sunday morning, a Taliban delegation engaged prominent Afghan jihadi leaders, politicians and elders in negotiations that culminated in Ghani stepping down from office, sources directly aware of the developments told VOA.

The Taliban maintained in the talks that they would not engage Ghani in any transfer of power, saying he was not “a legitimate” president.

It is not known who was involved in the negotiations, but Abdullah Abdullah, who has overseen U.S.-brokered, intra-Afghan peace talks with the Taliban, was among the negotiators of Sunday’s deal.

Abdullah Abdullah, the Chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation, arrives for Afghan peace talks in Doha, Qatar, Aug. 12, 2021.

Under a deal reportedly reached, a delegation of Afghan leaders, including Abdullah, would travel to Qatar, where “the transfer of power to the Taliban” will formally take place, sources told VOA.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, who is based in the group’s political office in the Qatari capital, Doha, said in a statement that insurgent fighters have been directed not to harm anyone or attack government and private properties during the course of military advances.

Shaheen said “anyone found guilty would be prosecuted and severely punished” by the Taliban. He insisted the Islamist group has maintained from the outset that it wanted a “peaceful transition of power,” blaming the beleaguered Ghani government for “pushing ahead with the war option.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed Sunday evening that their fighters have been directed to enter parts of Kabul to guard security posts and other installations to “prevent chaos and looting after Afghan forces abandoned them.” Mujahid urged the residents to remain calm saying the move was meant to ensure security of the people.

Earlier Sunday, the Taliban took over Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province and the last major city outside the capital to have been under government control.

Various reports said security forces were also retreating from other districts of Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan and holds one of the key border crossings into Pakistan via Torkhem.

Also Sunday, Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said their fighters took control of Bagram Air Base and the Parwan prison there and freed its inmates. There were about 5,000 high-profile Taliban, al-Qaida and ISIS prisoners at Bagram, which served as the main base for the U.S.-led foreign military mission in Afghanistan.

The speed of the Taliban offensive has shocked both locals and the international community. While violence in the country has been high since 2020, after the Taliban signed a deal with the United States, the latest campaign against Afghan cities has been unexpectedly fast.

The Taliban gains started with the capital of Nimruz province August 6 and nine days later, they had surrounded Kabul from all sides.

Anti-missile decoy flares are deployed as U.S. Black Hawk military helicopters and a dirigible balloon fly over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021.

The Taliban’s arrival at the gates of Kabul has embassies scrambling to get their personnel out.

The U.S. is sending 1,000 troops, in addition to the 3,000 troops that were ordered last week, to help evacuate U.S. Embassy staff. Helicopters are reported ferrying staff to the Kabul airport.

“We have conveyed to the Taliban representatives in Doha, via our Combatant Commander, that any action on their part on the ground in Afghanistan, that puts U.S. personnel or our mission at risk there, will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response,” U.S. President Joe Biden said, according to a White House statement.

Ghani Leaves Afghanistan as Taliban Enter Kabul, Set to Take Control | Voice of America - English (voanews.com)

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Taliban enter Afghan capital as US diplomats evacuate by chopper

Summary

Taliban enter Kabul from all sides - Afghan official Taliban say they are in talks with government for surrender U.S. diplomats evacuated by chopper Eastern city of Jalalabad falls without a fight

KABUL, Aug 15, 2021 (Reuters) -

Taliban fighters entered Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Sunday as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter and a government minister said power would be handed over to an interim administration.

The developments capped a lightning advance by the Islamist militants, who were ousted from Kabul 20 years ago by U.S.-led forces after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

A senior Afghan interior ministry official told Reuters the Taliban were coming "from all sides" into the capital but gave no further details. There were no reports of fighting.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the group was in talks with the government for a peaceful surrender of Kabul.

"Taliban fighters are to be on standby on all entrances of Kabul until a peaceful and satisfactory transfer of power is agreed," the statement said.

Ali Ahmad Jalali, a U.S.-based academic and former Afghan interior minister, is likely to be named head of an interim administration in Kabul, three diplomatic sources said as Taliban fighters gathered around the city.

No major Taliban movement into Kabul had been detected yet, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The collapse of the Afghan government defence has stunned diplomats - just last week, a U.S. intelligence estimate said Kabul could hold out for at least three months.

There was no immediate word on the situation from President Ashraf Ghani. A palace official said he was in emergency talks with U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and top officials from the NATO transatlantic alliance.

Power would be handed over to a transitional administration, the government's acting interior minister, Abdul Sattar Mirzakawal, said in a tweet on the Tolo news channel. "There won't be an attack on the city, it is agreed that there will be a peaceful handover," he said without elaborating.

The head of the Taliban's political bureau, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is heading to Kabul from Doha, a Taliban source in the Qatari capital said.

A tweet from the Afghan presidential palace account said firing had been heard at a number of points around Kabul but that security forces, in coordination with international partners, had control of the city.

Many of Kabul's streets were choked by cars and people either trying to rush home or reach the airport, residents said.

"Some people have left their keys in the car and have started walking to the airport," one resident told Reuters by phone. Another said: "People are all going home in fear of fighting."

Afghans have fled the provinces to enter Kabul in recent days, fearing a return to hardline Islamist rule.

Early on Sunday, refugees from Taliban-controlled provinces were seen unloading belongings from taxis and families stood outside embassy gates, while the city's downtown was packed with people stocking up on supplies.

CHOPPERS AT EMBASSY

U.S. officials said diplomats were being ferried by helicopters to the airport from its embassy in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan district. More American troops were being sent to help in the evacuations after the Taliban's surge brought the Islamist group to Kabul in a matter of days.

"Core" U.S. team members were working from the airport, a U.S. official said, while a NATO official said several European Union staff had moved to a safer, undisclosed location in the capital.

Earlier on Sunday, the insurgents captured the eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, giving them control of one of the main highways into landlocked Afghanistan. They also took over the nearby Torkham border post with Pakistan, leaving Kabul airport the only way out of Afghanistan still in government hands.

"There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taliban," a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. "Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save civilian lives."

A video clip distributed by the Taliban showed people cheering and shouting "Allahu Akbar" - God is greatest - as a convoy of pickup trucks entered Jalalabad with fighters brandishing machine guns and the white Taliban flag.

After U.S.-led forces withdrew the bulk of their remaining troops in the last month, the Taliban campaign accelerated as the Afghan military's defences appeared to collapse.

President Joe Biden on Saturday authorised the deployment of 5,000 U.S. troops to help evacuate citizens and ensure an "orderly and safe" drawdown of military personnel. A U.S. defence official said that included 1,000 newly approved troops from the 82nd Airborne Division.

The Taliban said its rapid gains showed it was popularly accepted by the Afghan people and reassured both Afghans and foreigners that they would be safe.

The Islamic Emirate, as the Taliban calls itself, "will, as always, protect their life, property and honour, and create a peaceful and secure environment for its beloved nation," it said, adding that diplomats and aid workers would face no problems.

Biden said his administration had told Taliban officials in talks in Qatar that any action that put U.S. personnel at risk "will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response."

He has faced rising domestic criticism as the Taliban have taken city-after-city far more quickly than predicted. The president has stuck to a plan, initiated by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan by Aug. 31.

Biden said it is up to the Afghan military to hold its own territory. "An endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict was not acceptable to me," Biden said on Saturday.

Reporting by Kabul and Washington bureaus, Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alasdair Pal, Cynthia Osterman, Philippa Fletcher; Editing by William Mallard and Andrew Cawthorne

Taliban enter Afghan capital as US diplomats evacuate by chopper | Reuters

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Afghani Army Chief Replaced, as Taliban Fighters Continue their Advances Despite US Air Strikes, Refugees Flock to Kabul

August 11, 2021

 

Afghanistan war: Biden says he does not regret troop withdrawal

BBC, August 11, 2021

US President Joe Biden has said he does not regret his move to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, as Taliban militants continue to make rapid advances.

Mr Biden urged Afghanistan's leaders to unite and "fight for their nation".

A US-led military campaign began in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks on American soil - but now most of the foreign troops have pulled out.

The Taliban group has now seized nine of the country's 34 provincial capitals, and are threatening more.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said the US was keeping the commitments it had made to Afghanistan, such as providing close air support, paying military salaries and supplying Afghan forces with food and equipment.

But he said: "They've got to fight for themselves."

The Washington Post cited unnamed officials as saying the capital Kabul could fall to the Taliban within 90 days, based on US military assessments.

More than 1,000 civilians have been killed amid fierce fighting between the Taliban and government forces in the past month, according to the UN. Its children's agency Unicef warned this week that atrocities being committed against children were growing "higher by the day".

In their latest major advances, Taliban militants seized three more provincial capitals in 24 hours - Faizabad, Farah and Pul-e-Khumri.

Officials said that on Tuesday the insurgents had raised their flag in the main square and on the governor's office in Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, which is located about 200km (125 miles) from Kabul.

A local journalist and provincial council member told the BBC that the western city of Farah had fallen.

And on Wednesday, the Taliban claimed to have taken Faizabad in the north-west of the country.

Other gains by the militant group this week include the key northern city of Kunduz. It is considered a gateway to mineral-rich provinces and is in a strategically important location close to the border with Tajikistan, which is used for the smuggling of opium and heroin.

Heavy fighting is continuing in other parts of the country, and US and Afghan planes have been carrying out airstrikes.

On Wednesday Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani flew to Mazar-i-Sharif in an apparent drive to rally the defenders in the key northern city which is now threatened by the militants.

Thousands of people have been fleeing their homes in recent days.

"We saw bodies lying near the prison... there were dogs next to them," one woman who left Kunduz as the Taliban took control told AFP news agency.

Residents still in the city said shops had begun to reopen as Taliban militants focused their attention on government forces who had retreated to the airport.

"People are opening their shops and businesses, but you can still see fear in their eyes," one said.

The Taliban have rejected international calls for a ceasefire.

UK Chief of the Defence Staff Gen Sir Nick Carter told the BBC that if the Afghan state fractured, the "ideal conditions" could emerge for international terrorism and violent extremism.

Afghanistan war: Biden says he does not regret troop withdrawal - BBC News

Pentagon: US Airstrikes in Afghanistan 'Having an Effect' on Taliban

By Jeff Seldin

VOA, August 10, 2021 06:06 PM

U.S. airstrikes are helping to blunt Taliban advances across Afghanistan, although Pentagon officials warn American air power alone will not be enough to push back the insurgent offensive.  

For weeks, the United States has been launching "over-the-horizon" strikes from its Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and from its carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf, hitting Taliban targets with a heavy mix of AC-130 gunships and MQ-9 Reaper drones.  

But there have been questions regarding the effectiveness of the strikes, with Taliban officials claiming the group has captured seven provincial capitals over the past five days, and tweeting Tuesday that an eighth capital, Faizabad, in Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, was about to fall.  

"We have every confidence that those strikes are hitting what we're aiming at and are having an effect on the Taliban," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Tuesday, saying additional strikes have been carried out "in just the last several days."  

Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in Kunduz city, northern Afghanistan, Aug. 9, 2021.

Kirby acknowledged U.S. airstrikes alone would not be enough to hold Taliban fighters at bay.  

"Nobody is suggesting, nobody has suggested here at the Pentagon that airstrikes are a panacea that will solve all the problems, all of the conditions on the ground," he said.   

"What we have said is that the Afghan forces have the capability, they have the capacity, they have a numerical advantage," Kirby added. "It's really going to come down to the leadership and the will to use those capabilities."  

At the White House on Tuesday, President Joe Biden echoed that call.  

"They've got to want to fight," he told reporters, adding there will be no reconsideration of the U.S. decision to complete its military withdrawal by August 31. 

"We spent over a trillion dollars over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces," Biden said. "They outnumber the Taliban." 

"They have to fight for themselves, fight for their nation," he said. 

FILE - Afghan Special forces patrol a deserted street during fighting with Taliban fighters, in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2021.

U.S. officials argue that fighting back will allow the Afghan government to gain leverage in ongoing negotiations with the Taliban. But despite an announcement earlier this month by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that the military had launched a new campaign to stabilize the country, there have been few signs of progress on the ground.  

Ghani Announces Afghanistan Security Plan, Promises Improvements in 6 Months President Ashraf Ghani says military will be responsible for defending strategic targets while police, under Interior Ministry, will defend cities and strategic district centers

In a series of posts on social media Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Taliban fighters had captured Farah, the capital of Afghanistan's Farah province, and said their forces were "on the verge of entering Feyzabad city," the capital of Badakhshan province.  

VOA could not independently verify the claims. There was no immediate confirmation by Afghan government officials.  

U.S. officials have pledged continued support to the Afghan government and security forces beyond the August 31 deadline for Washington's military withdrawal. That includes a proposed $3.3 billion in funding for Afghan security forces in the proposed Fiscal Year 2022 budget.  

White House Proposes Slight Boost in Aid for Afghan Forces  US President Joe Biden's proposed fiscal year 2022 defense budget asks for an additional $300 million to support Afghan government forces in the absence of US troops

U.S. officials also point out that the U.S. has already provided the Afghan air force with three refurbished Black Hawk helicopters since the withdrawal began this past May, and that another 34 are on the way.  

The U.S. is also in the process of purchasing more A-29 Super Tucano strike planes for Afghanistan and continuing to provide maintenance support from afar. Washington, too, has promised to continue to resupply the Afghan security forces with food and equipment, and pay their salaries. 

U.S. officials, separately Tuesday, voiced hope that their efforts may find a way to impress upon Taliban leaders that their current offensive is not in anyone's interest. 

"There is room for diplomatic progress to be made," State Department spokesman Ned Price said, pointing to the presence in Doha of Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan. 

"The idea that we don't have leverage or that the Islamic Republic, the government of Afghanistan doesn't have leverage, is not the case," Price told reporters, cautioning, "There are other tools at our disposal that fall short of reintroducing U.S. forces. We have not ruled any of those out." 

For the second day in a row, however, the Pentagon indicated that as the August 31 deadline for the U.S. withdrawal draws closer, U.S. airstrikes, at least, will become less likely. 

"The drawdown ... in many ways, in many facets, is all but complete," Kirby told Pentagon reporters. "The where and the when in terms of feasibility of these strikes is going to be different and it's going to decline."  

Pentagon: US Airstrikes in Afghanistan 'Having an Effect' on Taliban | Voice of America - English (voanews.com) 

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Afghan official, reports: Army chief of staff replaced

By TAMEEM AKHGAR and JON GAMBRELL

August 11, 2021, KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —

An Afghan official and local media reports say President Ashraf Ghani has replaced the army chief of staff amid a Taliban blitz across the country.

A Defense Ministry official said Gen. Hibatullah Alizai replaced Gen. Wali Ahmadzai as the Afghan army chief of staff. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the change that has not yet been announced publicly.

Local media widely reported Ghani’s decision. Afghan government officials for days have not responded to repeated requests for comment.

The Taliban seized three more provincial capitals in Afghanistan and a local army headquarters completing their blitz across the country’s northeast and pressing their offensive elsewhere, officials said Wednesday. The insurgents now control some two-thirds of the nation as the U.S. and NATO finalize their withdrawal after a decades-long war there.

The fall of the capitals of Badakhshan and Baghlan provinces to the northeast and Farah province to the west put increasing pressure on the country’s central government to stem the tide of the advance, even as its lost a major base in Kunduz. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rushed to Balkh province, already surrounded by Taliban-held territory, to seek help in pushing back the insurgents from warlords linked to allegations of atrocities and corruption.

While Kabul itself has not been directly threatened in the advance, the stunning speed of the offensive raises questions of how long the Afghan government can maintain control of its countryside. The multiple fronts of the battle have stretched the government’s special operations forces — while regular troops have often fled the battlefield — and the violence has pushed thousands of civilians to seek safety in the capital. The U.S. military, which plans to complete its withdrawal by the end of the month, has conducted some airstrikes but largely has avoided involving itself in the ground campaign.

The Afghan government and military did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the losses.

Humayoon Shahidzada, a lawmaker from the western province of Farah, confirmed Wednesday to The Associated Press his province’s capital of the same name fell. Neighboring Nimroz province was overrun in recent days after a weeklong campaign by the Taliban.

In Farah, Taliban fighters dragged the shoeless, bloody corpse of one Afghan security force member through the street, shouting: “God is great!” Taliban fighters carrying M-16 rifles and driving Humvees and Ford pickup trucks donated by the Americans rolled through the streets of the capital.

“The situation is under control in the city, our mujahedeen are patrolling in the city,” one Taliban fighter who did not give his name said, referring to his fellow insurgents as “holy warriors.”

The crackle of automatic weapon fire continued throughout the day in Farah.

Hujatullah Kheradmand, a lawmaker from Badakhshan, said the Taliban had seized his province’s capital, Faizabad. An Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak about an unacknowledged loss, said Baghlan’s capital, Poli-Khumri, also fell.

The insurgents earlier captured six other provincial capitals in the country in less than a week.

On Wednesday, the headquarters of the Afghan National Army’s 217th Corps at Kunduz airport fell to the Taliban, according to Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a provincial council member in Kunduz, and lawmaker Shah Khan Sherzad. The insurgents posted video online they said showed surrendering troops.

The corps is one of seven across the army and its loss represents a major setback. The province’s capital, also called Kunduz, was already among those seized, and the capture of the base now puts the country’s northeast firmly in Taliban hands.

It wasn’t immediately clear what equipment was left behind for the insurgents, though a Taliban video showed them parading in Humvees and pickup trucks. Another video showed fighters on the airport’s tarmac next to an attack helicopter without rotor blades.

In southern Helmand province, where the Taliban control nearly all of the capital of Lashkar Gar, a suicide car bomber targeted the government-held police headquarters, provincial council head Attaullah Afghan said. The building has been under siege for two weeks.

The rapid fall of wide swaths of the country to the Taliban raises fears that the brutal tactics they used to rule Afghanistan before will also return. Some civilians who have fled Taliban advances have said that the insurgents imposed repressive restrictions on women and burned down schools. There have also been reports of revenge killings in areas where the Taliban have gained control.

Speaking to journalists Tuesday, a senior EU official said the insurgents held some 230 districts of the over 400 in Afghanistan. The official described another 65 in government control while the rest were contested. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal figures.

In addition to the northeast, much of northern Afghanistan has also fallen to the Taliban, except for Balkh province. There, warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammad Noor and Mohammad Mohaqiq planned to mobilize forces in support of the Afghan government to push back the Taliban.

Dostum in particular has a troubled past, facing investigations after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion for killing hundreds of Taliban fighters last year by letting them suffocate in sealed shipping containers.

On Wednesday, Dostum said that the Taliban “won’t be able to leave north and will face the same fate” as the suffocated troops.

After a 20-year Western military mission and billions of dollars spent training and shoring up Afghan forces, many are at odds to explain why the regular forces have collapsed, fleeing the battle sometimes by the hundreds. The fighting instead has fallen largely to small groups of elite forces and the Afghan air force.

The success of the Taliban blitz has added urgency to the need to restart the long-stalled talks in Qatar that could end the fighting and move Afghanistan toward an inclusive interim administration. The insurgents have so far refused to return to the negotiating table.

U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally.

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in the country’s north to escape battles that have overwhelmed their towns and villages. Families have flowed into the capital, Kabul, living in parks and streets with little food or water.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Afghan official, reports: Army chief of staff replaced (apnews.com)

 

 

 

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