Afghanistan will fall to the Taliaban again!

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Militants' success in Afghanistan will be a threat for South-east Asia sooner or later​

A Taleban fighter with local residents of Pul-e-Khumri after the Afghan city was seized by the group on Wednesday.PHOTO: AFP

Raul Dancel and Linda Yulisman

Aug 14, 2021

MANILA/JAKARTA - In days or weeks, Afghanistan's capital Kabul is expected to fall. The Taleban would have by then completed its stunning advance to seize control of the entire country, even before the United States officially ends its military mission there on Sept 11.
By Friday (Aug 13), the militant group had captured Kandahar in the southern Pashtun heartland, the second- largest city in the country, as well as Herat, a cultural and economic hub and the third-largest city. The city of Pol-e-Alam fell later in the day.
Only three major cities - including capital Kabul - remained under government control, and two of them were under siege from the Taleban.
Some American officials fear the Afghan government will implode within 30 days, and are preparing for an evacuation of the US Embassy in Kabul.
If Afghanistan once again comes under full Taleban rule, what will this mean for South-east Asia?
Analysts say there is no immediate threat to the region, especially as most parts of the world are in lockdown or under some form of movement restrictions and border controls because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"There's no immediate risk of Taleban victories strengthening extremists in South-east Asia," said Ms Sidney Jones, a senior adviser at the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.
For now, Afghanistan is just a massive propaganda victory for the Taleban. No doubt, one message will resonate with Muslim militants around the world, and that is: In a war of attrition, the Americans will always walk away.
"The Taleban won, like in Vietnam... What the US spent 20 years building is crumbling in mere weeks," said Mr Lucio Pitlo III, a research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation.
But, in a year or two, South-east Asia will have more than just breast-beating zealots to deal with.
A Taleban-ruled Afghanistan will be a showcase of the radical form of Islam that will reel in idealists and imams all over the world, eager to gain combat experience or some form of military and religious training that they can bring back home.
Fighters and resources will inevitably flow from Afghanistan, landing in some remote jungle on the southern Philippine island of Sulu, or a densely populated district in Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur.
Enclaves in northern Afghanistan that form part of a vast, ancient territory known as Khorasan, "the blessed land", are seen gaining even more prominence in the war on terror.
Khorasan, which also spans Iran and Turkmenistan, is where militants believe an army will rise that will deliver the fatal blow to "infidels".
Militants recruited by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) from South-east Asia have been reported to have holed up there after fleeing Syria. They sneaked in via Iran, hoping to find a "family-friendly", purely Islamic state.

Analysts believe that with the Taleban back in power, Khorasan could be the next destination for militant fighters.
"It's not impossible that there will be a call for jihad in Khorasan resembling those in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Mindanao in the 1990s, and recently in Syria," said Mr Adhe Bakti, an analyst from the Centre for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies, in Jakarta.
That, however, will not be happening any time soon.
There are nuances to the dynamics at work between the Taleban and those supporting ISIS and its precursor, Al-Qaeda. Those who are pro-ISIS, for one thing, are anti-Taleban.
"So, there is not a great likelihood that Taleban victories will lead to a new rush of South-east Asians to join ISIS," said Ms Jones.
She noted that the Taleban's allies in South-east Asia, meanwhile, have either been decimated or have moved on.

A Taleban flag flying above the main city square in Pul-e-Khumri on Aug 11, after the militant group captured the city, which is the capital of Afghanistan's Baghlan province. PHOTO: AFP

Indonesian security forces have been rounding up members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) since mid-2019, totally eviscerating the organisation.
In December last year, the Indonesian police nabbed an Afghan-trained militant who was believed to have led the elite squad involved in the suicide bombing at Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel that killed 12 people in 2003 and made bombs that killed 202 people in Bali a year earlier. The police also uncovered a JI training site in Central Java.

These efforts minimise the risk of strengthening extremism in Indonesia in the short term, despite the Taleban's stronger foothold in Afghanistan, said Indonesia's national counterterrorism agency chief Boy Rafli Amar.
Said Ms Jones: "(JI) will grow back, but it will take some time."
In the Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is now engaged in running its own autonomous region as part of a peace deal it brokered with the government.
Many of the group's battle-hardened commanders had trained in camps along the Afghan border. "But now the MILF has no time for terrorism," said Ms Jones.
In Malaysia, continuing turmoil on the political scene may, for now at least, be drawing militants' gaze inward "instead of a worrying situation that develops elsewhere in this disconnected world", said Mr Muhammad Sinatra, a foreign policy analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia.
"It is too soon to project whether the Taleban's advancement would energise radical and violent extremist groups here," he said.

Once the Taleban succeeds in retaking the Afghan capital, it will likely muddle through the years, trying to consolidate its hold on the country and fighting off rivals.
Eventually, militants will be heeding the call again once the threat of the pandemic recedes and border controls are eased in two to three years.
In the interim, terror groups such as JI could, for instance, roll out Afghanistan-centred propaganda to target those cooped up in their homes and stuck to their phones and computers because of the pandemic.
Mr Pitlo said that while pandemic-related border controls may prevent militants from sneaking into and out of Afghanistan, money could still flow freely to give extremist groups in South-east Asia, which have fallen on hard times because of the pandemic, a lifeline.
For South-east Asia's security planners, it is never too early to be prepared to deal with a renewed threat.

• Additional reporting by Hazlin Hassan in Kuala Lumpur

 

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The Taleban returns: Afghan events may have spillover effect on South Asia, say analysts​

Taleban militants gather after taking control of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand province in Afghanistan, on Aug 13, 2021.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Nirmala Ganapathy
India Bureau Chief

Aug 14, 2021

NEW DELHI - Afghanistan's permanent envoy to the United Nations Ghulam M. Isaczai told a Security Council meeting last week that 10,000 foreign fighters representing 20 groups were fighting alongside the Taleban in his country.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has been held responsible for multiple terror attacks in India, including the one in Mumbai in 2008, was among the groups he named.
The attacks on multiple spots in Mumbai, carried out by nine terrorists who sailed from Pakistan, left 164 people dead.
As the fighting grows more intense in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the United States and other Western troops, many analysts here are beginning to ponder on the threat to South Asia once the fighting is over in that country.
"In terms of a terror threat to India, it is an indirect concern at the moment. Certainly, victory for the Taleban would inspire a legion of extremist groups and also give ungoverned space to terror groups that have always targeted India from across the border (in Pakistan)," said Professor Harsh V. Pant, director of studies and head of the strategic studies programme at Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think-tank.
But he added that it remained to be seen how extremist groups would be operationalised on the ground.

"What they (India's security establishment) are more concerned about is that the longer the chaos and violence continues, the longer Afghanistan will continue to be this ungoverned space without any political structure where extremists of all kinds will come and get attracted to.
"And that will, in some way, devour not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan, and then easily lead to an escalation and deterioration in the Indian security environment as well."
There are also other terror outfits that are on the radar as far as India is concerned, like the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), a branch of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) operating in South Asia and Central Asia.
A Carnegie India paper, titled Dealing With The Taleban: India's Strategy In Afghanistan After US Withdrawal, pointed to the threat posed by IS-K to India.
"This group's ability to attract radicalised individuals, including from India, and recruit well-trained defectors from Taleban and Pakistani militant groups is a very real threat to India's future in Afghanistan and the region more broadly," they said.
The paper referred to the attack in March last year on a gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship, in Kabul, as an example of the risk posed by the group.
One of the four IS-K operatives who stormed the gurdwara complex was from the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Still, ISIS has not been able to gain a foothold in South Asia as yet.

The Taleban, of course, has vowed, as part of the peace deal with the US, not to allow foreign terror organisations to use Afghan soil to plan attacks on another country.
In remarks to the Indian media, Taleban representatives have repeated this assurance.
But analysts said that it remained to be seen if the Taleban would keep its promise on the ground and how the situation would evolve in the months to come.
As a result of its security concerns, India, in a major shift in policy, opened a channel of communication with the Taleban in recent months.
But the talks are viewed as preliminary, with little clarity on the overall Taleban stance towards India as the group is also not a homogeneous entity.
At least one key outlier within the Taleban, as far as India is concerned, is the Haqqani faction led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is currently deputy leader under the Taleban's supreme commander.
New Delhi and Washington believe a 2008 attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul in which two Indian diplomats were killed was perpetrated by the Haqqani faction, considered one of the most lethal fighting arms of the Taleban.
The Haqqani faction has a presence in Afghanistan's south-east and Pakistan's north-west, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think-tank.

The biggest worry for India, however, remains the links between Pakistan and the Taleban.
Pakistan, instrumental in getting the Taleban to the negotiating table, is seen to have the maximum leverage in Afghanistan due to its longstanding links to the group .
Government leaders in Kabul have accused Islamabad of supporting the ongoing Taleban offensive but Pakistan has denied the charges, saying it supported the peace process.
Mr Gautam Mukhopadhaya, a retired Indian diplomat and former ambassador to Afghanistan, noted the risk of "possible safe havens for anti-India Pakistan-based groups and strategic depth for Pakistan".
He also believed that the problems in Afghanistan would spill over into the region.
"The Taleban has ties with Pakistani ISI and a range of regional and transnational outfits labelled as terrorists. If they (Taleban) take over (in Kabul), it will have an inspirational and spillover effect regionally and globally."
The ISI is Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars, have been jostling for influence in Afghanistan for years, with Islamabad opposing India's development activities in the country under the stability provided by the US presence.
India has invested over US$3 billion (S$4.1 billion) in Afghanistan, building schools, roads, dams and the Parliament building in Kabul.
While it has refused to send troops, New Delhi has initiated low-key security cooperation, offering attack helicopters and radars to Afghanistan.
Rooted against this backdrop of rivalry is the conflict over Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim in its entirety.
India has over the years accused Pakistan of supporting terror organisations like the LeT in carrying out cross-border attacks to destabilise Kashmir.
Ties nosedived in 2019 after 40 men of the Indian Central Reserve Police Force were killed by a suicide bomber in the volatile state, leading to a military skirmish between the two countries.
The instability in Afghanistan carries the added threat of heightening terror activity in Kashmir.
Still, some analysts here believe India, armed with enhanced intelligence and closer counterterror cooperation with the US, is in a much better position than before to take on challenges to its internal security.
"I think India today is also more comfortable than it was in 1990 in managing those negative externalities," said Prof Pant.

 

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Blood and billions of dollars: Nato's long war in Afghanistan​

A 2014 photo shows a French soldier taking part in an end of Nato mission ceremony in Kabul.PHOTO: AFP

Aug 14, 2021

BRUSSELS (REUTERS) - Taleban fighters seized vast swathes of Afghanistan in the last few months and the Islamist militants have accelerated their offensive in the past week.
Meanwhile, the remaining foreign troops in the country are preparing to complete their withdrawal by the end of the month and have left local Afghan forces to fight the insurgents largely on their own.
Here are some facts about Nato's military involvement in support of the United States:
* On Sept 12, 2001, Nato allies invoked their mutual defence clause for the first, and so far only time in the Western alliance's seven-decade history, after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by Al-Qaeda militants.
* After US-led forces defeated Taleban leaders harbouring Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept 11 attacks, Nato took command of an international coalition in 2003. It aimed to restore peace to Afghanistan and build up Afghan security forces. In 2015, the mission, known as ISAF, was replaced by the current training operation, Resolute Support. As of April, it numbered around 10,000 troops from 36 nations.
* The international military coalition has suffered over 3,500 fatalities since 2001, among them around 2,400 Americans, according to US Congress data. More than 20,000 US troops were wounded in action. The website www.icasulaties.org puts the total number of fatalities at 3,577.
* Nato's troop presence peaked in 2011, with over 130,000 foreign troops from 51 allied and partner countries in Afghanistan. Since 2003, Nato has trained hundreds of thousands of Afghan troops and police officers, including establishing an Afghan air force.
* Germany deployed the second largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the United States. In the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, a stronghold of the Taleban, Germany lost more of its troops in combat there than anywhere else in the world since the end of World War II.
* The United States alone spent more than US$140 billion in overall aid for Afghanistan since 2002, according to US Congress data. The Pentagon estimated the cost of US combat operations, including support for the Afghan forces, at more than US$820 billion for the same period.
* Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It ranks 169 of 189 countries in the Human Development Index published by the United Nations Development Programme, with an average life expectancy of 64 years and a gross national income per capita of US$2,200.

 

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Timeline of Afghan war​

Taleban fighters stand on a vehicle along the roadside in Kandahar on Aug 13, 2021.PHOTO: AFP

Aug 14, 2021

Taleban militants have taken control over most of Afghanistan since US-led forces began withdrawing their troops. The 20-year war started in 2001, after the Sept 11 attacks.

2001​

Sept 11: Al-Qaeda operatives hijack three commercial airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth plane crashes in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people die. The US declares "a war against terrorism" and demands that the Taleban regime in Afghanistan hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Oct 7: The US military, with British support, launches a bombing campaign - Operation Enduring Freedom - against the Taleban. Ground forces arrive 12 days later.
Nov 1: The Taleban begins to retreat as its strongholds in Mazar-i-Sharif, Taloqan, Bamiyan, Herat, Kabul and Jalalabad are swiftly captured.
Dec 9: The Taleban surrenders in Kandahar, officially marking the end of the regime.

2002​

March: Operation Anaconda is launched against some 800 Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in Shah-i-Kot Valley. The US begins shifting resources from Afghanistan to wage war on Iraq.

June: Mr Hamid Karzai is picked to head Afghanistan's transitional government.

2003​

May 1: US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld declares the end of major combat in Afghanistan, as President George W. Bush announces victory in Iraq.

2004​

Oct 9: Mr Karzai is elected Afghan President in historic national balloting.
Oct 9: Osama resurfaces in a videotaped message before the US presidential election.

2006​

July: Violence increases across the country, with intense fighting in the south. Suicide and remotely detonated bombings rise.

2009​

July: US Marines launch a major offensive in southern Afghanistan.
November: Mr Karzai wins a second term after a disputed election.

2010​

November: Nato member states sign a declaration to hand over full responsibility for security to Afghan forces by end-2014.

2011​

May 1: Osama is killed by US forces in Pakistan.

2012​

March: The Taleban suspends preliminary talks with the US on a peace deal.

2013​

June: Afghan forces take over security responsibilities from Nato, whose focus shifts to military training and counter-terrorism.

2014​

May 27: President Barack Obama announces a timetable to pull out most US forces by end-2016.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC​

Blood and billions of dollars: Nato's long war in Afghanistan​

Afghanistan crisis raises old questions about US' global role​

2017​

April 13: The US drops its most powerful non-nuclear bomb on suspected Islamic State in Iraq and Syria militants in eastern Nangarhar province.

2018​

January: The Taleban launches major attacks even as the Trump administration deploys troops across rural Afghanistan.

2019​

February: US-Taleban talks build momentum following signals that President Donald Trump plans to pull out about half of the US deployment.
Sept 7: Mr Trump breaks off peace talks a week after an "in- principle agreement" is reached, after a US soldier is killed in a Taleban attack.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC​

Afghanistan spiralling into failed state where Al-Qaeda will thrive, says UK​

'Lion of Herat' silent as warlord's Afghan city falls to Taleban​

2020​

Feb 29: US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and top Taleban official Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign an agreement that paves the way for a significant drawdown of US troops and includes a Taleban guarantee that the country will not be used for terrorist activities.
Sept 12: Intra-Afghan peace talks begin in Doha.

2021​

April 14: President Joe Biden announces the full withdrawal of US troops by Sept 11.
May 4: Taleban fighters attack southern Helmand province and at least six other provinces.

​

June 22: The Taleban launches attacks in the north. The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan says the militants have taken more than 50 of 370 districts.
July 2: US troops pull out from Bagram Air Base, effectively ending US involvement in the war.
Aug 6-13: The Taleban captures 16 cities in just eight days.

 

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Assault on Afghan capital Kabul expected as Taleban seize more cities​

Afghan police special forces soldiers at a frontline position in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Aug. 3, 2021.PHOTO: NYTIMES

Aug 14, 2021

KABUL (REUTERS) - Taleban insurgents have seized Afghanistan's second - and third-biggest cities, local officials said on Friday (Aug 13), as resistance from government forces crumbled and fears grew that an assault on the capital Kabul could be just days away.
A government official confirmed that Kandahar, the economic hub of the south, was under Taleban control as United States-led international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.
Herat in the west also fell to the hardline Islamist group.
"The city looks like a frontline, a ghost town," provincial council member Ghulam Habib Hashimi said by telephone from the city of about 600,000 people near the border with Iran.
"Families have either left or are hiding in their homes."
A US defence official said there was concern that the Taleban - ousted from power in 2001 after the Sept 11 attacks on the US - could make a move on Kabul within days.

US President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced plans to send 3,000 additional troops to help evacuate US embassy staff, and the Pentagon said most would be in Kabul by the end of the weekend.
Britain also confirmed the start of a military operation to support the evacuation of its nationals.
"Kabul is not right now in an imminent threat environment, but clearly... if you just look at what the Taleban has been doing, you can see that they are trying to isolate Kabul," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.
The White House said Mr Biden was receiving regular briefings from his national security team on efforts to remove US civilians.

The US embassy in the Afghan capital informed staff that burn bins and an incinerator were available to destroy material, including papers and electronic devices, to "reduce the amount of sensitive material on the property", according to an advisory seen by Reuters.
A State Department spokesman said the embassy was following standard procedure to "minimise our footprint".
The United Nations has said it would not evacuate its personnel from Afghanistan but was relocating some to Kabul from other parts of the country. Many other Western embassies and aid groups said they were bringing some staff home.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that "Afghanistan is spinning out of control" and urged all parties to do more to protect civilians.

"This is the moment to halt the offensive. This is the moment to start serious negotiation. This is the moment to avoid a prolonged civil war, or the isolation of Afghanistan," Mr Guterres told reporters in New York.
Afghan First Vice-President Amrullah Saleh said after a security meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani that he was proud of the armed forces and the government would do all it could to strengthen resistance to the Taleban.

'Humanitarian catastrophe'​

The explosion in fighting has raised fears of a refugee crisis and a rollback of gains in human rights. Some 400,000 civilians have been forced from their homes since the start of the year, 250,000 of them since May, a UN official said.
Families were camping out in a Kabul park with little or no shelter, having escaped violence elsewhere in the country.
"The situation has all the hallmarks of a humanitarian catastrophe," the UN World Food Programme's Thomson Phiri told a briefing.
Under Taleban rule from 1996 to 2001, women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their face and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes.
Of Afghanistan's major cities, the government still holds Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, in addition to Kabul.

The Taleban has taken the towns of Lashkar Gah in the south and Qala-e-Naw in the north-west, security officials said. Firuz Koh, capital of central Ghor province, was handed over without a fight.
Kandahar's loss is a heavy blow to the government. It is the heartland of the Taleban - ethnic Pashtun fighters who emerged in 1994 amid the chaos of civil war.
The militants have taken control of 14 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals since Aug 6.
After seizing Herat, the insurgents detained veteran commander Ismail Khan, an official said. They had promised not to harm him and other captured officials.
A Taleban spokesman confirmed that Mr Khan, who had been leading fighters against the insurgents, was in their custody.
Al-Jazeera later reported Mr Khan had boarded a plane to Kabul bearing a message from the Taleban. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
The speed of the Taleban's gains has led to recriminations over the US withdrawal, which was negotiated last year under the administration of Mr Biden's Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

Mr Biden said this week he did not regret his decision to follow through with the withdrawal. He noted Washington spent more than US$1 trillion (S$1.35 trillion) and lost thousands of troops over 20 years of war, and called on Afghanistan's army and leaders to step up.
Opinion polls showed most Americans back Mr Biden's decision.
But Republicans criticised the Democratic president.
US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called the situation in Afghanistan "a debacle" but said it was not too late to stop the Taleban overrunning the capital by providing air and other support for Afghan forces.

 

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Taliban Could Retake Kabul Almost Exactly 20 Years After U.S. Drove Them Out​

Joe Walsh
Forbes Staff
Business

TOPLINE​

The Taliban could seize the Afghan capital of Kabul within three months, U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly warned, with the militant group making rapid gains throughout the country as the U.S. withdraws and the 20th anniversary of the Taliban’s retreat from Kabul approaches.

Internally displaced Afghan families — who fled from Kunduz, Takhar and Baghlan provinces due to ... [+]
AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS​

The Taliban could isolate Kabul in 30 to 60 days and capture the city within 90, U.S. officials estimated to the Washington Post, Reuters and other outlets this week, as the insurgent group takes territory across Afghanistan more quickly than expected.
The predictions are far from ironclad, but it means Taliban fighters could reoccupy Kabul almost precisely 20 years after the group retreated from the city on Nov. 13, 2001, when local Northern Alliance fighters, American special forces and heavy U.S. and allied airstrikes ended the Taliban’s yearslong grip on most of Afghanistan.
The current onslaught also comes nearly 25 years after the Taliban first took control of Kabul in late September 1996 and imposed a harsh religious fundamentalist style of governing: The group closed girls’ schools, barred most women from working and doled out brutal punishments, the New York Times reported at the time.

KEY BACKGROUND​

The United States plans to withdraw its final troops from Afghanistan by Aug. 31, ending a 20-year conflict that started after the Taliban — which controlled about 90% of Afghanistan at the time — refused to hand over Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 attacks. The Taliban kept carrying out attacks and holding some territory in the ensuing decades, and shortly after the U.S. military began pulling out this year, the group took over large swaths of the country, prompting U.S. officials to reportedly warn Kabul could fall in six to 12 months. But the Taliban has become even more aggressive in recent weeks, seizing more than a dozen of the country’s 34 provincial capitals, including large cities like Kandahar and Herat and parts of northern Afghanistan that were once hotbeds of anti-Taliban resistance. With Kabul possibly collapsing in months, many Afghans fear a return to the Taliban’s grim 1990s-era practices: In some areas recently captured by the Taliban, the group has reportedly executed Afghan troops who surrendered, shut down girls’ schools and tried to force women into marrying its fighters.

TANGENT​

The United States still hasn’t totally vacated Afghanistan yet. The U.S. military will send about 3,000 troops back to Kabul this week, in a limited mission to evacuate American embassy staffers and Afghans who worked for the U.S. The military has also conducted anti-Taliban airstrikes in recent weeks, and the Pentagon says it will maintain the ability to strike Afghanistan from “over the horizon” if needed. Still, airstrikes could become challenging after troops fully withdraw from the country later this month, and it’s unclear whether the United States will keep supporting the Afghan army’s battle against the Taliban from the air or focus more narrowly on counterterrorism strikes.

CONTRA​

Despite the uncertainty, President Joe Biden — who has cast the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan as unwinnable and nonessential — said earlier this week he doesn’t regret withdrawing troops, arguing Afghan forces need to “fight for themselves.” The Biden administration is also pressing the Afghan government and the Taliban to broker a power-sharing agreement, but peace talks in Qatar have yielded little progress so far.

 

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Afghan president in urgent talks as Taleban captures major town near Kabul​

A Taleban flag flying above the main city square in Pul-e-Khumri on Aug 11, after the militant group captured the city.PHOTO: AFP

Aug 14, 2021


KABUL (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG) - Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners on Saturday (Aug 14) as Taleban rebels pushed closer to Kabul, capturing a town south of the capital that is one of the gateways to the city.
The United States and Britain rushed in troops to help evacuate their embassies after the militants captured town after town as US and other foreign forces that have backed the government withdrew.
Most foreign troops have already left and the remainder are set to exit by Aug 31, as US President Joe Biden follows through on former president Donald Trump's promise to wind down America's longest war.
Many Afghans have fled from the provinces to the capital, driven out by fighting and fearful of a return to hardline Islamist rule, as resistance from Afghan government forces crumbles.
Mr Ghani expressed concern about the condition of the thousands of internal refugees who have fled to the safety of the national capital over the last few weeks.
The crisis threatens to spill outside the country's borders and send waves of refugees to its neighbours and as far afield as Europe.

“As your President, my focus is on preventing further instability, violence, and displacement of my people,” Mr Ghani said in a brief televised address, adding that he was consulting government, elders, politicians and international leaders.
He gave no sign of responding to a Taleban demand that he resign as a condition for any talks on a ceasefire and a political settlement, saying his priority remained the consolidation of the country’s security and defence forces.
“Serious measures are being taken in this regard,” he said, without elaborating.
Qatar, which has been hosting so-far inconclusive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taleban, said on Saturday it had urged the insurgents to cease fire during a meeting with their representatives on Saturday.

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met the head of the Taleban’s political bureau, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to follow up on peace talks hosted by the Gulf country, the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
“The foreign minister urged the Taleban at the meeting to let up the escalation and to cease fire,” it said.
Afghan president vows to fight Taleban offensive

Envoys from the United States, China, Pakistan, the United Nations, the European Union and others met Taleban representatives and Afghan government officials on Thursday in Doha.
The statement issued following that meeting reaffirmed that foreign capitals would not recognise any government in Afghanistan “imposed through the use of military force”.
Earlier the Taleban, facing little resistance, took Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province and 70km south of Kabul, according to a local provincial council member, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The town is a staging post for a potential assault on Kabul.
Its capture came a day after the insurgents took the country’s second- and third-biggest cities. The Taleban says it is close to capturing Maidan Shahr, another town close to Kabul.
An Afghan government official confirmed on Friday that Kandahar, the biggest city in the south, was under Taleban control as US-led international forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.
The US-led invasion, which ousted the Taleban from power, was launched after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
Herat in the west, near the border with Iran, also fell to the group.
Kandahar’s loss was a heavy blow to the government. It is the heartland of the Taleban - ethnic Pashtun fighters who emerged in 1994 amid the chaos of civil war. It is also close to the town of Spin Boldak, one of the two main entry points into Pakistan and a major source of tax revenues.

Embassy evacuations​

American troops have begun flying in to Kabul to help in the evacuation of embassy personnel and other civilians, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon has said two battalions of Marines and an infantry battalion will arrive in Kabul by Sunday evening, involving about 3,000 troops.
Taleban take Afghanistan's second biggest city of Kandahar

An infantry brigade combat team will move to Kuwait to act as a quick reaction force for security in Kabul if needed.
The Czech Republic said it was evacuating its two diplomats on Saturday and Italy said it would evacuate its embassy if necessary.
Some embassies have begun to burn sensitive material ahead of evacuating, diplomats said.
Many people in the capital were stocking up on rice and other food as well as first aid, residents said.
Visa applications at embassies were running in the tens of thousands, officials said, and Washington was asking countries to temporarily house Afghans who worked for the US government.
A US defence official said before the fall of Pul-e-Alam that there was concern that the Taleban could make a move on Kabul within days.

Refugee crisis​

The explosion in fighting has raised fears of a refugee crisis and a rollback of gains in human rights, especially for women. Some 400,000 civilians have been forced from their homes this year, 250,000 of them since May, a UN official said.
Canada said it would resettle more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans including women leaders, human rights workers and reporters to protect them from Taleban reprisals.
Germany’s conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, Armin Laschet, on Saturday called on the foreign ministry to quickly authorise the army to assist in the departure of local helpers from Afghanistan.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, from Merkel’s coalition partner, the SPD, said on Friday that Germany would bring forward charter flights originally planned for the end of August to evacuate non-essential embassy staff in Kabul as well as Afghan helpers.
“The Bundeswehr have to save these people. That’s the moral obligation after everything they have done for us,” Mr Laschet said at an event in the city of Giessen.
“We can’t watch them any longer being threatened by the Taleban and fundamentalists.”
Of Afghanistan’s major cities, the government still holds Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, in addition to Kabul.
The speed of the Taleban’s gains has led to recriminations over the US withdrawal, which was negotiated last year under Mr Biden's administration’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.
Mr Biden said this week he did not regret his decision to follow through with the withdrawal.
He noted Washington has spent more than US$1 trillion (S$1.35 trillion) and lost thousands of troops over two decades, and called on Afghanistan’s army and leaders to step up.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Taleban capture major Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, draw closer to Kabul​

Taleban forces patrol a street in Herat, Afghanistan, on Aug 14, 2021.PHOTO: REUTERS

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (REUTERS) - Taleban forces captured a major city in northern Afghanistan on Saturday (Aug 14), sending Afghan forces fleeing, and drew closer to Kabul, where Western countries scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the capital.
The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, confirmed by a provincial council official, was another major capture for the hardline militants, who have swept through the country in recent weeks as US-led forces withdrew.
The United States and Britain are now rushing several thousand troops back into the country to evacuate citizens amid concern Kabul could soon be overrun.
Security forces from Mazar-i-Sharif were escaping towards the border, Afzal Hadid, head of the Balkh provincial council, told Reuters.
"The Taleban have taken control of Mazar-I-Sharif," he said. "All security forces have left Mazar city."
The city appeared to have fallen largely without a fight, although sporadic clashes were continuing nearby, he said.

Earlier in the day, the rebels seized a town south of Kabul that is one of the gateways to the capital.
Many Afghans have fled from the provinces to the capital, driven out by fighting and fearful of a return to hardline Islamist rule, as resistance from Afghan government forces crumbles.
As night fell on Saturday, hundreds of people were huddled in tents or in the open in the city, by roadsides or in carparks, a resident said. "You can see the fear in their faces," he said.
President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners but gave no sign of responding to a Taleban demand that he resign as a condition for any ceasefire.

His focus was "on preventing further instability, violence, and displacement of my people", he said in a brief televised address, adding that security and defence forces were being consolidated.
Qatar, which has been hosting so-far inconclusive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taleban, said it had urged the insurgents to cease fire during a meeting with their representatives on Saturday.
Afghan president in talks as Taleban near Kabul

Earlier the Taleban, facing little resistance, took Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province and 70km south of Kabul, according to a local provincial council member, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Police officials, however, denied reports that the Taleban had advanced closer to Kabul from Pul-e-Alam, which is a staging post for a potential assault on the capital.
The town's capture came a day after the insurgents took the country's second- and third-biggest cities. The Taleban says it is close to capturing Maidan Shahr, another town close to Kabul.

An Afghan government official confirmed on Friday that Kandahar, the biggest city in the south and the heartland of the Taleban, was under the militants' control as US-led forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.
The US-led invasion, which ousted the Taleban from power, was launched after the Sept 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
Herat in the west, near the border with Iran, also fell to the group. The Taleban said on Saturday it had overrun the capitals of Kunar, Paktika and Paktia provinces on Afghanistan's eastern border, although this could not be immediately confirmed.

Embassy evacuations​

American troops have begun flying in to Kabul to help in the evacuation of embassy personnel and other civilians, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon has said two battalions of Marines and an infantry battalion will arrive in Kabul by Sunday evening, involving about 3,000 troops. An infantry brigade combat team will move to Kuwait to act as a quick reaction force for security in Kabul if needed.

The Czech Republic said it was evacuating its two diplomats on Saturday and Germany said it would deploy troops to get its diplomats out as soon as possible.
Some embassies have begun to burn sensitive material ahead of evacuating, diplomats said. Residents said many people in the capital were stocking up on rice, other food and first aid.
Visa applications at embassies were running in the tens of thousands, officials said, and Washington was asking countries to temporarily house Afghans who worked for the US government.

Thousands wounded​

Hospitals were struggling to cope with the numbers of people wounded in the fighting, with 17,000 treated in July and the first week of August in facilities supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the aid agency said.
The explosion in fighting has raised fears of a refugee crisis and a rollback of gains in human rights, especially for women. Canada said it would resettle more than 20,000 vulnerable Afghans on Friday, including women leaders, human rights workers and reporters to protect them from Taleban reprisals.
As well as Kabul, the government now still holds the city of Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east.
The speed of the Taleban's gains has led to recriminations over the US withdrawal, which was negotiated last year under the administration of President Joe Biden's Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.
Biden said this week he did not regret his decision to follow through with the withdrawal. He noted Washington has spent more than US$1 trillion (S$1.3 trillion) and lost thousands of troops over two decades, and called on Afghanistan's army and leaders to step up.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Afghan militia leaders Atta Noor, Dostum flee as Mazar-i-Sharif falls to Taleban in 'conspiracy'​

Afghan strongmen Atta Mohammad Noor (left) and Abdul Rashid Dostum had been among the Taleban's fiercest enemies.PHOTOS: NYTIMES, AFP

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (REUTERS) - Two of Afghanistan's most notorious regional strongmen fled on Saturday (Aug 14) as the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taleban and security forces abandoned the city in a headlong rush up the highway to the safety of neighbouring Uzbekistan.
Atta Mohammad Noor, the former governor of Balkh province and the ethnic Uzbek leader Abdul Rashid Dostum have been involved in wars in Afghanistan since the days of the Soviet invasion and had been among the Taleban's fiercest enemies.
Noor, who had been commanding local militia forces when Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taleban, said both he and Dostum were safe and blamed the fall of the city on a "conspiracy".
Taleban forces entered the city virtually unopposed as security forces escaped up the highway to Uzbekistan, provincial officials said.
Unverified pictures on social media showed Afghan army vehicles and men in uniforms crowding the iron bridge at the Hairatan crossing.
"Despite our firm resistance, sadly, all the government and the #ANDSF equipments were handed over to the #Taliban as a result of a big organised & cowardly plot," Noor wrote on Twitter. "They had orchestrated the plot to trap Marshal Dostum and myself too, but they didn't succeed."

The flight of Noor and Dostum underlines the collapse not only of the central government in Kabul as the insurgents have swept forward but also of a generation of powerful regional leaders from the anti-Soviet Mujahideen who fought the Taleban.
Earlier in the week, Ismail Khan, one of the leaders of the original uprising that triggered the 1979 Soviet invasion, was captured by the Taleban in the western city of Herat and photographed surrounded by grinning insurgent fighters.
The importance of such leaders, sometimes described as "warlords", stemmed not from any official position in government but from their personal authority and regional power base and they frequently clashed with President Ashraf Ghani.
For years, they were accused of corruption and human rights abuses, with Dostum forced to spend a period in exile as recently as 2018 over allegations that he ordered a political opponent to be sexually assaulted.

Noor, considered one of the richest men in Afghanistan, faced repeated accusations of corruption, which he denied.
However, as regular forces crumbled in the face of the Taleban following the withdrawal of US forces, they returned to the front lines, in the hopes that their local power base would provide more effective resistance.
"Our path won't end here," Noor wrote.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

British ambassador to be flown out of Afghanistan on Sunday: Report​

Taleban fighters patrol the streets in Herat on Aug 14, 2021.PHOTO: AFP

Aug 15, 2021

LONDON (REUTERS) - Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan will be flown out of the country by Sunday evening, the Sunday Telegraph reported, after British troops moved to evacuate most other British diplomats and officials.
Taleban fighters drew closer to Kabul on Saturday (Aug 14).
The capital and Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, are now the only cities not in Taleban hands, prompting the United States and other western countries to rush to evacuate their citizens.
A plan to evacuate Britons had been due to last weeks, but the Sunday Telegraph said the Taleban's advances meant there were fears the airport could be overrun sooner and the operation had been sped up.
By Saturday night, only tens of British officials and diplomats remained in Afghanistan, down from around 500 earlier in the week, the paper said, with the ambassador due to leave on Sunday.
The government's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Britain said on Thursday that it was sending 600 troops to help British nationals and local translators leave the country as the security situation deteriorated.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Taleban enters Afghan capital Kabul as US diplomats evacuate by helicopter​

An Afghan soldier stands in a military vehicle on a street in Kabul, on Aug 15, 2021.PHOTO: REUTERS

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (REUTERS, AFP) - Taleban insurgents entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul on Sunday (Aug 15), an interior ministry official said, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.
The senior official told Reuters that the Taleban was coming in “from all sides” but gave no further details.
A Twitter post 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.
US officials said the diplomats were being ferried to the airport from the embassy in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan district. More American troops were being sent to help in the evacuations after the Taleban’s lightning advances brought the Islamist group to Kabul in a matter of days.
Just last week, a US intelligence estimate said Kabul could hold out for at least three months.
Core US team members were working from the Kabul airport, a US official said, while an official from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) alliance said several European Union staff had moved to a safer, undisclosed location in the capital.

Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said there would be a “peaceful transfer of power” to a transitional government.
“The Afghan people should not worry... There will be no attack on the city and there will be a peaceful transfer of power to the transitional government,” he said in a recorded speech.
A Taleban official had also told Reuters that the group did not want any casualties as it took charge but had not declared a ceasefire.
There was no immediate word on the situation from President Ashraf Ghani, who said on Saturday that he was in urgent consultations with local leaders and international partners on the situation.

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 that is still in government hands.
The capture of Jalalabad followed the Taleban’s seizure of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late on Saturday, also with little fighting.
“There are no clashes taking place right now in Jalalabad because the governor has surrendered to the Taleban,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. “Allowing passage to the Taleban was the only way to save civilian lives.”
A video clip distributed by the Taleban showed people cheering and shouting "Allahu Akbar" – "God is greatest" – as a convoy of pickup trucks entered the city with fighters brandishing machine guns and the white Taleban flag.

Militants waving a Taleban flag on the back of a pickup truck drive past Pashtunistan Square area in Jalalabad, on Aug 15, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

After US-led forces withdrew the bulk of their remaining troops in the last month, the Taleban campaign accelerated as the Afghan military’s defences appeared to collapse.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday authorised the deployment of 5,000 US troops to help evacuate citizens and ensure an “orderly and safe” drawdown of military personnel.
A US defence official said that included 1,000 newly approved troops from the 82nd Airborne Division.

A US military helicopter flying above the US embassy in Kabul, on Aug 15, 2021. PHOTO: AFP

Taleban fighters entered Mazar-i-Sharif virtually unopposed as security forces escaped up the highway to Uzbekistan, about 80km to the north, provincial officials said.
Unverified video on social media showed Afghan army vehicles and men in uniform crowding the iron bridge between the Afghan town of Hairatan and Uzbekistan.
Two influential militia leaders supporting the government - Atta Mohammad Noor and Abdul Rashid Dostum – also fled. Noor said on social media that the Taleban had been handed control of Balkh province, where Mazar-i-Sharif is located, due to a “conspiracy".
In a statement late on Saturday, the Taleban 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 Taleban 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 also face no problems.

Afghans have fled the provinces to enter Kabul in recent days, fearing a return to hardline Islamist rule.
Early on Sunday, refugees from Taleban-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.
Hundreds of people slept huddled in tents or in the open in the city, by roadsides or in carparks, a resident said on Saturday night. “You can see the fear in their faces,” he said.

Internally displaced Afghan families, who fled from the northern province, sitting in the courtyard of a mosque in Kabul on Aug 13, 2021. PHOTO: AFP

Mr Biden said his administration had told Taleban officials in talks in Qatar that any action that put US personnel at risk “will be met with a swift and strong US military response”.
The President has faced rising domestic criticism as the Taleban has taken city after city far more quickly than predicted. Mr Biden has stuck to a plan, initiated by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump to end the US military mission in Afghanistan by Aug 31.
Mr 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,” Mr Biden said on Saturday.
Qatar, which has been hosting so-far inconclusive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taleban, said it had urged the insurgents to cease fire.
President Ghani has given no sign of responding to a Taleban demand that he resign as a condition for any ceasefire.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Taleban sweep in Afghanistan follows years of US miscalculations​

A photo from March 22, 2016, shows American soldiers overseeing training of their Afghan counterparts in Helmand province, Afghanistan.PHOTO: NYTIMES

Aug 15, 2021

WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - United States President Joe Biden's top advisers concede they were stunned by the rapid collapse of the Afghan army in the face of an aggressive, well-planned offensive by the Taleban that now threatens Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.
The past 20 years show they should not have been.
If there is a consistent theme over the two decades of war in Afghanistan, it is the overestimation of the results of the US$83 billion (S$112 billion) that the United States has spent since 2001 on training and equipping the Afghan security forces, and an underestimation of the brutal, wily strategy of the Taleban.
The Pentagon issued dire warnings to Mr Biden, even before he took office, about the potential for the Taleban to overrun the Afghan army, but intelligence estimates - now shown to have badly missed the mark - assessed that it might happen in 18 months, not weeks.
Commanders knew that the afflictions of the Afghan forces had never been cured: the deep corruption, the failure by the government to pay many Afghan soldiers and police officers for months, the defections, and the soldiers sent to the front without adequate food and water, let alone arms.
In the past several days, the Afghan forces steadily collapsed as they battled to defend ever-shrinking territory, losing Mazar-e-Sharif, the country's economic engine, to the Taleban on Saturday (Aug 14).

Mr Biden's aides say the persistence of those problems reinforced his belief that the US could not prop up the Afghan government and military in perpetuity. In Oval Office meetings this spring, he told aides that staying another year, or even five, would not make a substantial difference and was not worth the risks.
In the end, an Afghan force that did not believe in itself and a US effort that Mr Biden and most Americans no longer believed would alter the course of events combined to bring an ignoble close to America's longest war.
The US kept forces in Afghanistan far longer than the British did in the 19th century, and twice as long as the Soviets - with roughly the same results.
For Mr Biden, the last of four US presidents to face painful choices in Afghanistan, but the first to get out, the debate about a final withdrawal and the miscalculations over how to execute it began the moment he took office.

Under former president Donald Trump, "we were one tweet away from complete, precipitous withdrawal", said Mr Douglas Lute, a retired general who directed Afghan strategy at the National Security Council for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
"Under Biden, it was clear to everyone who knew him, who saw him pressing for a vastly reduced force more than a decade ago, that he was determined to end US military involvement, but the Pentagon believed its own narrative that we would stay forever.
"The puzzle for me is the absence of contingency planning: If everyone knew we were headed for the exits, why did we not have a plan over the past two years for making this work?"

A sceptical President​

From the moment that news outlets called Pennsylvania for Mr Biden on Nov 7, making him the next commander-in-chief for 1.4 million active-duty troops, Pentagon officials knew they would face an uphill battle to stop a withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
Defence Department leaders had already been fending off Mr Trump, who wanted a rapid drawdown. In a Twitter post last year, he declared all US troops would be out by that Christmas.
And while they had publicly voiced support for the agreement that Mr Trump reached with the Taleban in February 2020 for a complete withdrawal this May, Pentagon officials said they wanted to talk Mr Biden out of it.
After Mr Biden took office, top Defence Department officials began a lobbying campaign to keep a small counter-terrorism force in Afghanistan for a few more years.
They told the President that the Taleban had grown stronger under Mr Trump than at any point in the past two decades, and pointed to intelligence estimates predicting that in two or three years, al-Qaeda could find a new foothold in Afghanistan.
Shortly after Mr Lloyd Austin was sworn in as defence secretary on Jan 22, he and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended to Mr Biden that 3,000 to 4,500 troops stay in Afghanistan, nearly double the 2,500 troops there.
On Feb 3, a congressionally appointed panel led by retired four-star Marine general Joseph Dunford publicly recommended that Mr Biden abandon the exit deadline of May 1 and further reduce US forces only as security conditions improved.
The president told his national security team, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, that he was convinced that no matter what the US did, Afghanistan was almost certainly headed into another civil war - one that Washington not only could not prevent, but also, in his view, could not be drawn into.
By March, Pentagon officials said they realised they were not getting anywhere with Mr Biden. Although he listened to their arguments and asked extensive questions, they said they had a sense that his mind was made up.
In late March, Mr Austin and Gen Milley made a last-ditch effort with the President, by forecasting dire outcomes in which the Afghan military folded in an aggressive advance by the Taleban. They drew comparisons to how the Iraqi military was overrun by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria terror group in 2014, after US combat troops left Iraq, prompting Mr Obama to send US forces back.
"We've seen this movie before," Mr Austin told Mr Biden, according to officials with knowledge of the meetings.
But the President was unmoved. If the Afghan government could not hold off the Taleban now, aides said he asked, when would they be able to? None of the Pentagon officials could answer the question.
On the morning of April 6, Mr Biden told Mr Austin and Gen Milley he wanted all US troops out by Sept 11.

The intelligence assessments in Mr Biden's briefing books gave him some assurance that if a bloody debacle resulted in Afghanistan, it would at least be delayed. As recently as late June, the intelligence agencies estimated that even if the Taleban continued to gain power, it would be at least a year and a half before Kabul would be threatened; the Afghan forces had the advantages of greater numbers and air power, if they could keep their helicopters and planes flying.
Even so, the Pentagon moved swiftly to get its troops out, fearful of the risks of leaving a dwindling number of Americans in Afghanistan and of service members dying in a war the US had given up for lost.
Before the July 4 weekend, the US had handed over Bagram Air Base, the military hub of the war, to the Afghans, effectively ending all major US military operations in the country.
"Afghans are going to have to be able to do it themselves with the air force they have, which we're helping them maintain," Mr Biden said at the time. A week later, he argued that the Afghans "have the capacity" to defend themselves.
"The question is," he said, "will they do it?"

The will is gone​

To critics of the decision, the President underestimated the importance of even a modest presence, and the execution of the withdrawal made the problem far worse.
"We set them up for failure," said Mr David Petraeus, a retired general who commanded the international forces in Afghanistan from 2010 until he was appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency the next year.
Mr Biden's team, he argued, "did not recognise the risk incurred by the swift withdrawal" of intelligence and reconnaissance drones and close air support, as well as the withdrawal of thousands of contractors who kept the Afghan air force flying - all in the middle of a particularly intense fighting season.
The result was that Afghan forces on the ground would "fight for a few days, and then realise there are no reinforcements" on the way, he said. The "psychological impact was devastating", he added.
But administration officials, responding to such critiques, counter that the Afghan military dwarfs the Taleban, some 300,000 troops to 75,000.
They have an air force, a capable air force, something the Taleban does not have, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said last Friday. "They have modern equipment. They have the benefit of the training that we have provided for the last 20 years. It's time now to use those advantages."

But by the time Mr Kirby noted those advantages, none of them seemed to be making a difference. Feeling abandoned by the US and commanded by rudderless leaders meant that Afghan troops on the ground "looked at what was in front of them, and what was behind them, and decided it's easier to go off on their own", said retired general Joseph Votel, a former commander of US Central Command who oversaw the war in Afghanistan from 2016 to 2019.
Mr Biden, an administration official said, expressed frustration that President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan had not managed to effectively plan and execute what was supposed to be the latest strategy: consolidating forces to protect key cities.
On Wednesday, Mr Ghani fired his army chief Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai, who had been in place for only two months, replacing him with Major-General Haibatullah Alizai, a special operations commander. The commandos under Maj-Gen Alizai are the only troops who have consistently fought the Taleban these past weeks.
Mr Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Centre for a New American Security, an influential Washington think-tank that specialises in national security, wrote that in the end, the 20-year symbiosis between the US and the Afghan government it stood up for, supported and ushered through elections had broken down.
"Those highlighting the Afghan government's military superiority - in numbers, training, equipment, air power - miss the larger point," he wrote recently. "Everything depends on the will to fight for the government. And that, it turns out, depended on US presence and support. We're exhorting the Afghans to show political will when theirs depends on ours. And ours is gone."

On Saturday, as the last major city in northern Afghanistan fell to the Taleban, Mr Biden accelerated the deployment of 1,000 more troops to the country to help ensure the safe evacuation of US citizens and Afghans who worked for the US government from Kabul.
Mr Biden released a lengthy statement in which he blamed Mr Trump for at least part of the unfolding disaster. He said: "I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor (which) left the Taleban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021, deadline on US forces."
He said when he took office, he had a choice: abide by the deal or "ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country's civil conflict".
He said: "I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan - two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth."

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Timeline of the Taleban's rapid advance across Afghanistan​

Taleban militants patrol after taking control of the Governor's house and Ghazni city on Aug 12, 2021.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (REUTERS) - Taleban insurgents began entering Kabul on Sunday (Aug 15) after taking control of all of Afghanistan's major cities apart from the capital.
The following are some of the major milestones in the militant movement's advance in recent months. Other deadly attacks occurred, some blamed on the Taleban and some on other militant groups, including an offshoot of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Talks between the Taleban and the Afghan government on a political understanding that could lead to a peace deal, backed by the United States and its allies, have failed to make significant progress.

April 14​

President Joe Biden announces US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan from May 1 and ending on Sept 11, bringing America's longest war to a close. It was an extension of the previous withdrawal deadline of May 1 agreed between the US and the Taleban.

May 4​

Taleban fighters launch a major offensive on Afghan forces in southern Helmand province. They also attack in at least six other provinces.

May 11​

The Taleban captures Nerkh district just outside the capital Kabul as violence intensifies across the country.

June 7​

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Senior government officials say more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in 24 hours as fighting worsens. They add that fighting is raging in 26 of the country's 34 provinces.

June 22​

Taleban fighters launch a series of attacks in the north of the country, far from their traditional strongholds in the south. The UN envoy for Afghanistan says they have taken more than 50 of 370 districts.

July 2​

American troops quietly pull out of their main military base in Afghanistan - Bagram Air Base, an hour's drive from Kabul. It effectively ends US involvement in the war.

July 5​

The Taleban say they could present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government as soon as August.

July 21​

Taleban insurgents control about a half of the country's districts, according to the senior US general, underlining the scale and speed of their advance.

July 25​

The US vows to continue to support Afghan troops "in the coming weeks" with intensified air strikes to help them counter Taleban attacks.

July 26​

The United Nations says nearly 2,400 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in May and June in escalating violence, the highest number for those months since records started in 2009.

Aug 6​

Zaranj, in the south of the country, becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taleban in years. Many more are to follow in the ensuing days, including the prized city of Kunduz in the north.

Aug 13​

Four more provincial capitals fall in a day, including Kandahar, the country's second city and spiritual home of the Taleban. In the west, another key city, Herat, is overrun and veteran commander Mohammad Ismail Khan, one of the leading fighters against the Taleban, is captured.

Aug 14​

The Taleban takes the major northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and, with little resistance, Pul-e-Alam, capital of Logar province just 70km south of Kabul. The US sends more troops to help evacuate its civilians from Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says he is consulting with local and international partners on next steps.

Aug 15​

The Taleban takes the key eastern city of Jalalabad without a fight, effectively surrounding Kabul.

Aug 15​

Taleban insurgents enter Kabul, an interior ministry official says, as the US evacuate diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Who's who behind the Taleban leadership​

Afghan police special forces soldiers at a frontline position in Kandahar, Afghanisatan, on Aug 3, 2021.PHOTO: NYTIMES

Aug 15, 2021



KABUL (AFP) - The Taleban movement's inner workings and leadership have always been largely shrouded in secrecy, even during its rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
As the hardline Islamic group appears to be on the brink of regaining power, here is a rundown of what little is known about its leadership:

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader​

Haibatullah Akhundzada is widely believed to have been selected to serve more as a spiritual figurehead than a military commander. PHOTO: REUTERS
Haibatullah Akhundzada was appointed leader of the Taleban in a swift power transition after a US drone strike killed his predecessor, Mullah Mansour Akhtar, in 2016.
Before ascending the movement's ranks, Akhundzada was a low-profile religious figure. He is widely believed to have been selected to serve more as a spiritual figurehead than a military commander.
After being appointed leader, Akhundzada secured a pledge of loyalty from Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, who showered the religious scholar with praise, calling him "the emir of the faithful".
This helped seal his Islamist credentials with the group's long-time allies.


Akhundzada was tasked with the enormous challenge of unifying a militant movement that briefly fractured during a bitter power struggle following the assassination of his predecessor, and the revelation that the leadership had hid the death of Taleban founder Mullah Omar for years.
The leader's public profile has been largely limited to the release of annual messages during Islamic holidays.

Mullah Baradar, the founder​

Abdul Ghani Baradar (pictured) was believed to have fought side-by-side with the one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar. PHOTO: AFP
Abdul Ghani Baradar was raised in Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taleban movement.
Like most Afghans, Baradar's life was forever altered by the Soviet invasion of the country in the late 1970s, transforming him into an insurgent.

He was believed to have fought side by side with one-eyed cleric Mullah Omar.
The two would go on to found the Taleban movement in the early 1990s amid the chaos and corruption of the civil war that erupted after the Soviet withdrawal.
Following the Taleban's collapse in 2001, Baradar is believed to have been among a small group of insurgents who approached interim leader Hamid Karzai with a letter outlining a potential deal that would have seen the militants recognise the new administration.
Arrested in Pakistan in 2010, Baradar was kept in custody until pressure from the United States saw him freed in 2018 and relocated to Qatar.
This is where he was appointed head of the Taleban's political office and oversaw the signing of the withdrawal agreement with the Americans.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani Network​

Sirajuddin is the son of the famed commander from the anti-Soviet resistance, Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Sirajuddin doubles as both the deputy leader of the Taleban movement while also heading the powerful Haqqani Network.
The Haqqani Network is a US-designated terror group that has long been viewed as one of the most dangerous factions fighting Afghan and US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan during the past two decades.
The group is infamous for its use of suicide bombers and is believed to have orchestrated some of the most high-profile attacks in Kabul over the years.
The network has also been accused of assassinating top Afghan officials and holding kidnapped Western citizens for ransom, including US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was released in 2014.
Known for their independence, fighting acumen, and savvy business dealings, the Haqqanis are believed to oversee operations in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan, while holding considerable sway over the Taleban's leadership council.

Mullah Yaqoob, the scion​

The son of Taleban founder Mullah Omar.
Mullah Yaqoob heads the group's powerful military commission, which oversees a vast network of field commanders charged with executing the insurgency's strategic operations in the war.
His lineage and ties to his father - who enjoyed a cult-like status as the Taleban's leader - serves as a potent symbol and makes him a unifying figure over a sprawling movement.
However, speculation remains rife about Yaqoob's exact role within the movement, with some analysts arguing that his appointment to the role in 2020 was merely cosmetic.

 

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Taleban shows off US-made war spoils in reclaimed spiritual home​

Taleban militants gather a day after taking control of Kandahar, on Aug 14, 2021.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (AFP) - The Taleban have released footage showing captured US-made Afghan military helicopters at Kandahar airport, until recently one of the most important US bases in the country.
The insurgents have been quick to show off their war spoils in the southern city - their spiritual birthplace and now one of the biggest prizes in a countrywide blitz that has left the capital Kabul surrounded by Taleban fighters.
The fall of Kandahar - Afghanistan's second-biggest city - on Friday (Aug 13) meant the insurgents once again had full control of their ethnic Pashtun heartland.
In footage posted on Taleban social media accounts on Saturday, an insurgent is seen walking around a US-made Black Hawk military helicopter, which is in brown-green camouflage with Afghan Air Force markings, purportedly at a Kandahar airport hangar.
He then walks out and another Black Hawk is seen in the distance on the tarmac.
As he walks to the side of the hangar, two Russian military helicopters are seen as another person is heard saying "Mashallah" - an Islamic term of praise.


It was not clear if any of the helicopters were airworthy.
The Black Hawk inside the hangar was seemingly in storage, with a black sheet covering its windshield and its left engine apparently missing.
The two Russian helicopters outside the hangar were missing their blades, with a sheet covering the front of one airframe.
One of the fighters is heard claiming there are five military helicopters at the airport, and several jets.

Agence France-Presse could not independently verify the number of helicopters and planes at Kandahar airport.
While the Taleban have been able to deploy other equipment on the battlefield, experts have cast doubt about the utility of captured helicopters and planes.
The Taleban are not known to possess the pilots or technical personnel needed to fly them.
But their capture is a symbolic boon for the insurgents and an embarrassment for the Western coalition ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the deadline for the American withdrawal.
The Kandahar video was released just a day after the Taleban captured the city from Afghan forces, which have lost all major cities except Kabul.
Images such as these have emerged from cities across Afghanistan that have fallen to the Taleban, showing insurgents posing with captured weapons and patrolling in vehicles once used by Afghan spies and elite forces.
Taleban fighters have also seized tactical vehicles, Humvees, small arms and ammunition.
Washington supplied much of that hardware to the Afghan military, to the tune of US$88 billion (S$119 billion) since 2002.
With US troops all but gone, Taleban fighters are now flush with American-supplied arms and equipment - often left by retreating Afghan forces.

 

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History of Afghanistan's Taleban movement​

Taleban fighters along the roadside in Herat, Afghanistan, on Aug 13, 2021.PHOTO: AFP

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (AFP) - The Taleban, which is on the brink of total victory in Afghanistan on Sunday (Aug 15), previously governed the country between 1996 and 2001, imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law before being ousted and launching an insurgency.
Here is some background on the movement:

Religious students​

The Taleban originated among young Afghans who studied in Sunni Islamic schools called madrassas in Pakistan after fleeing Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation.
They take their name from talib, the Arabic word for student.
In the early 1990s, with Afghanistan in the chaos and corruption of civil war, the Taleban was formed in the southern province of Kandahar under the leadership of one-eyed warrior-cleric Mullah Omar.
Omar, who led them until his death in 2013, was from a stronghold of the powerful Pashtun ethnic group from which most Taleban fighters come.

Haibatullah Akhundzada is now the top leader, while Taleban co-founder Mullah Baradar heads the political wing.

Dramatic rise to power​

Promising to restore order and justice, the Taleban rose dramatically.
They drew substantial support from Pakistan and initially had the tacit approval of the United States.
In 1994 they seized the city of Kandahar almost without a fight.

Equipped with tanks, heavy weapons and the cash to buy the support of local commanders, they steadily moved north, before capturing the capital Kabul on September 27, 1996.
President Burhanuddin Rabbani had already fled.
Taleban fighters dragged former communist president Mohammed Najibullah from a United Nations office where he had been sheltering, and hanged him in a public street after torturing him.

​

Reign of terror​

The Taleban government imposed the strictest interpretations of sharia, establishing religious police for the suppression of "vice".
Music, television and popular pastimes such as kite-flying were banned. Girls' schools were closed, while women were prevented from working and forced to wear an all-covering burqa in public.
Taleban courts handed out extreme punishments including chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning to death women accused of adultery.
By 1998, they had control of 80 per cent of the country, but were only recognised as the legal government by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
In 2001 they blew up 1,500-year-old giant statues of the Buddha in the central Bamiyan valley.
Mullah Omar was based mostly in Kandahar where he lived in a house reportedly built for him by Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban allowed Afghanistan to become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda, which set up training camps.

​

Taleban toppled​

The September 11, 2001 attacks that killed around 3,000 people in the US were immediately blamed on Al-Qaeda.
Accusing the Taleban of refusing to hand over Bin Laden, the US and allies launched air strikes on Afghanistan in October.
By early December, the Taleban government had fallen, its leaders fleeing to their strongholds in the south and east, or across the border into Pakistan's tribal zone.

Bloody insurgency​

At first written off as a spent force, the Taleban rebuilt to lead an insurgency against the new Western-backed government.
Making heavy use of improvised bombings and suicide attacks, they labelled as "crusaders" the tens of thousands of foreign troops who deployed into the country as part of a US-dominated Nato force.
The Nato combat mission ended in December 2014 and the bulk of Western forces withdrew.
In July 2015, Pakistan hosted the first direct talks between Afghan and Taliban leaders, with support from China and the US, but they collapsed after Mullah Omar's death was revealed.
The rival Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group emerged in Afghanistan in 2015, launching its own series of devastating attacks, mainly on Kabul.

​

US exit​

Taleban offensive - In 2018 the US and Taleban began discreet talks in Doha, that were interrupted several times after attacks against American troops.
A historic deal was signed by the US with the Taleban in Doha on Feb 29, 2020, laying out a timetable for a full American troop withdrawal.
On July 6, 2021, the US military said it had completed 90 per cent of its retreat from Afghanistan.
Five weeks later, the Taleban are on the outskirts of the capital Kabul, and the government has conceded it is preparing for a "transfer of power".

 

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Blinken says not in US interests to stay in Afghanistan​

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected comparisons with the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975 as the Vietnam War drew to a close.PHOTO: AFP

Aug 16, 2021

WASHINGTON (REUTERS, AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN on Sunday (Aug 15) that it was not in the interests of the United States to remain in Afghanistan, as Taleban insurgents entered the capital Kabul.
Mr Blinken said Washington had invested billions of dollars over four US administrations in Afghan government forces, giving them advantages over the Taleban, but they have failed to beat back the Taleban's advance.
"The fact of the matter is we've seen that force has been unable to defend the country," he said. "And that has happened more quickly than we anticipated."
US embassy staff in Kabul were being moved on Sunday to the airport as Taleban forces advanced on the Afghan capital, Mr Blinken added.
The Taleban were on the brink of total victory, with their fighters ordered to wait on the outskirts of Kabul and the government conceding it was preparing for a "transfer of power".
"It's why we had forces on hand to make sure we could do this in a safe and orderly fashion. The compound itself, folks are leaving there and going to the airport," Mr Blinken told ABC.

Despite the precipitous move, he rejected comparisons with the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975 as the Vietnam War drew to a close.
"This is not Saigon," he said. "The fact of the matter is this: We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind. That was to deal with the people that attacked us on 9/11. That mission has been successful."
The Taleban's militants surrounded Kabul following an astonishingly quick rout of government forces, who proved incapable of holding on to territory without US military support.
The fall of Kabul will see the hardline group take back power two decades after US-led forces toppled it in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

 

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Taleban wants full power after return to Afghan capital; President Ghani leaves Kabul​

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Afghan security officials stand guard at a checkpoint in Kabul, on Aug 15, 2021.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Aug 15, 2021

KABUL (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP) - Taleban insurgents entered Kabul on Sunday (Aug 15) and Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed, bringing the Islamist militants close to taking over the country two decades after they were overthrown by a US-led invasion.
As night fell, local television 1TV reported that multiple explosions were heard in the city, which had been largely quiet earlier in the day.
It said gunfire could be heard near the aiport, where foreign diplomats, officials and other Afghans fled seeking to leave the country.
Aid group Emergency said 80 wounded people had been brought to its hospital in Kabul, which was at capacity, and that it had restricted admission to people with life-threatening injuries.
It was not yet clear where Ghani was headed or how exactly power would be transferred following the Taleban’s lightning sweep in recent weeks across Afghanistan.
Their advance accelerated as US and other foreign troops withdrew in line with President Joe Biden’s desire to end America’s longest war, launched after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

Insurgents entered the presidential palace and took control of it, two senior Taleban commanders in Kabul said. Al Jazeera television later showed footage of what it said were Taleban commanders in the palace with dozens of armed fighters.
The Taleban also said they had taken control of most of the districts around the outskirts of the capital.
In a post on Facebook, Ghani said he had left the country to avoid bloodshed and clashes with the Taleban that would endanger millions of residents of Kabul. He did not say where he was.
A senior Interior Ministry official said Ghani had left for Tajikistan. A Foreign Ministry official said his location was unknown and the Taleban said it was checking his whereabouts.

Al Jazeera news channel reported on Sunday, citing a personal bodyguard of the president, that Mr Ghani, his wife, his chief of staff and national security adviser have left the country for Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Some local social media users branded Mr Ghani a “coward” for leaving them in chaos.
Many Afghans fear the Taleban will return to past harsh practices in their imposition of syariah, or Islamic, law. During their 1996-2001 rule, women were not allowed to work and punishments such as stoning, whipping and hanging were administered.
The Taleban sought to project a more moderate face, promising to respect women’s rights and protect both foreigners and Afghans.
Spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the group would protect the rights of women, as well as freedoms for media workers and diplomats.
“We assure the people, particularly in the city of Kabul, that their properties, their lives are safe,” he told the BBC, saying that a transfer of power was expected in days.
Taleban enter Afghan capital Kabul

Transfer of power​

The government’s acting interior minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakawal had said earlier in the day that power would be handed over to a transitional administration.
Three diplomatic sources said Mr Ali Ahmad Jalali, a US-based academic and former Afghan interior minister, could be named head of an interim administration.
But two Taleban officials told Reuters later that there would be no transitional government and that the group expects a complete handover of power.
Taleban negotiators were heading to the presidential palace in Kabul to prepare for a transfer of power, the Associated Press said.
An Afghanistan government delegation, including senior official Abdullah Abdullah, was on Sunday set to travel to Qatar to meet Taleban representatives, Ms Fawzia Koofi, a member of the Kabul negotiating team, told Reuters.

A source familiar with the matter said US officials would also be involved in the discussions.
The ease of the militant group’s advance in recent weeks as the last of American troops withdraw, despite billions of dollars spent by the US and others to build up local Afghan government forces, has stunned the world.
Just last week, a US intelligence estimate said Kabul could hold out for at least three months.
The Taleban said its rapid gains showed it was popularly accepted by the Afghan people.

Situation on the streets​

Afghans who work at different offices rush home after news broke that the Taleban had reached the outskirts of Kabul, on Aug 15, 2021. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

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 said.
Another said: “People are all going home in fear of fighting.”
Early on Sunday, refugees from Taleban-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.
US officials said diplomats were being ferried by helicopter to the airport from its embassy in the fortified Wazir Akbar Khan district.
A Nato official said several European Union staff had moved to a safer location in the capital.
US troops were still arriving at the airport, amid concern heavily armed Afghan security contractors could “mutiny” because they have not been assured Washington is committed to evacuating them, a person familiar with the issue said.

A US military helicopter flying above the US embassy in Kabul, on Aug 15, 2021. PHOTO: AFP

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.
“Allowing passage to the Taleban was the only way to save civilian lives,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan official said.
A video clip distributed by the Taleban 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 Taleban flag.

Global responses​

Militants waving a Taleban flag on the back of a pickup truck drive past Pashtunistan Square area in Jalalabad, on Aug 15, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was not in America’s interests to remain in Afghanistan, as countries called for an emergency United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting.
He said Washington had invested billions of dollars over four US administrations in Afghan government forces, giving them advantages over the Taleban, but that they failed to beat back the militant group’s advance.
“The fact of the matter is we’ve seen that force has been unable to defend the country,” he told CNN. “And that has happened more quickly than we anticipated.”
Mr Blinken rejected comparisons with the chaotic American departure from Saigon in 1975 as the Vietnam War drew to a close.
“This is not Saigon,” he told ABC. “The fact of the matter is this: We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind. That was to deal with the people that attacked us on Sept 11. That mission has been successful.”
The US embassy was being moved to the airport and had a list of people to get out of harm’s way, Mr Blinken added.
Russia is working with other countries to hold an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan, Russian foreign ministry official Zamir Kabulov said on Sunday.
Russia is one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with the US, Britain, France, and China. Estonia and Norway have also requested that the 15-member council meet as soon as possible.
Mr Kabulov said Moscow does not plan to evacuate its embassy in Kabul, and that the Taleban had offered Russia and other countries – which he did not name – security assurances for their missions there.
In Britain, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday recalled Parliament from its summer break for urgent debate on the situation in Afghanistan, his office said.
A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Johnson had called an emergency response meeting to discuss what Britain should do next. It was the second such meeting in three days.

Britain lost 457 troops fighting in the two-decade-long war, and some British politicians have in recent days called for a last-ditch intervention in Afghanistan.
“Just because the Americans won’t (intervene), does not mean to say that we should be tied to the thinking, the political judgment – particularly when it is so wrong – of our closest security ally,” Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, told Times Radio.
“We could prevent this, otherwise history will judge us very, very harshly in not stepping in.”
Mr Ellwood said the British government could deploy the Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group to provide air support in Afghanistan.
Mr Johnson last Friday vowed that Britain would not “turn our backs” on Afghanistan, but said those calling for an intervention “have got to be realistic about the power of the UK or any power to impose a military solution – a combat solution – in Afghanistan”.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Turkey would work with Pakistan to help stabilise Afghanistan and prevent a new flood of refugees.
Iran said it had set up camps along the Afghan border to provide temporary refuge to Afghans fleeing their country.
A Nato official said the alliance was maintaining its diplomatic presence in Kabul, helping to keep the city's airport running, and that a political solution was “now more urgent than ever”.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday authorised the deployment of 5,000 US troops to help evacuate citizens and ensure an “orderly and safe” drawdown of military personnel.

Internally displaced Afghan families, who fled from the northern province, sitting in the courtyard of a mosque in Kabul on Aug 13, 2021. PHOTO: AFP

He said his administration had told Taleban officials that any action that put US personnel at risk “will be met with a swift and strong US military response”.
Mr Biden has faced rising domestic criticism after sticking to a plan, initiated by his predecessor Donald Trump, to end the US Afghan military mission by Aug 31.
“An endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” Mr Biden said on Saturday.

 

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Evacuation from Afghanistan falters as chaos at airport reigns​

Afghan passengers walk toward the airport in Kabul on Aug 15, 2021.
PHOTO: REUTERS


Aug 16, 2021

KABUL (NYTIMES) - The US Embassy warned Americans not to head to the airport in Kabul because of a situation that was "changing quickly" after the Taleban entered the city Sunday (Aug 15).
Witnesses at the civilian domestic terminal said they had heard occasional gunshots and said thousands of people had crammed into the terminal and filled the parking lots, desperately seeking flights out.
"The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly including at the airport," the embassy said in a statement. "There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing US citizens to shelter in place."
The Taleban entered Kabul on Sunday, completing the nearly total takeover of Afghanistan two decades after the US military drove them from power.
A frenzied evacuation of US diplomats and civilians kicked into high gear last week, while Afghans made a mad dash to banks, their homes and the airport. Crowds of people ran down the streets as the sound of gunfire echoed in downtown Kabul.
Helicopter after helicopter - including massive Chinooks with their twin engines, and speedy Black Hawks that had been the workhorse of the grinding war - touched down and then took off loaded with passengers. Some shot flares overhead.

Those being evacuated over the weekend included a core group of American diplomats who had planned to remain at the embassy in Kabul, according to a senior administration official.
They were being moved to a compound at the international airport, where they would stay for an unspecified amount of time, the official said.
The runway of the airport was filled with a constellation of uniforms from different nations. They joined contractors, diplomats and civilians all trying to catch a flight out of the city. Those who were eligible to fly were given special bracelets, denoting their status as non-combatants.
For millions of Afghans, including tens of thousands who assisted the US efforts in the country for years, there were no bracelets. They were stuck in the city.
Hundreds of people swarmed to the civilian side of the airport in the hopes of boarding planes out, but by evening, scores were still waiting inside the terminal and milling around on the apron amid the constant roar of planes taking off from the adjacent military air base.
A long line of people waited outside the check-in gate, unsure if the flights they had booked out of the country would arrive.
While President Joe Biden has defended his decision to hold firm and pull the last US troops out of Afghanistan by Sept 11, his administration has become increasingly worried about images that could evoke a foreign policy disaster of the past: the fall of Saigon at the end of the conflict in Vietnam in 1975.

 

[Travelickb]

Negotiatiing with the Taliban was their big mistake. They will never change their spots.