Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul was captured by the Taliban on Monday, as the group seized control of several major cities in a swift and bloody offensive. The U.S. government has reportedly been readying an evacuation for its citizens from the country.
The U.S. Readies Evacuation; Major Cities Fall to the Taliban is a short article that discusses the current state of Afghanistan and how it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
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Over the last week, Taliban (Taliban) have taken control of more than a dozen of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, putting them in a strong position to assault Kabul, the country’s capital, just weeks before US forces are set to leave. CreditCredit… The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek took this photo.
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) – On Friday, Taliban (Taliban) claimed control of three key towns in western and southern Afghanistan, as the militants’ rush to seize control of the nation intensified.
After a weeks-long struggle that left sections of the city in ruins, hospitals brimming with the injured and dying, and people wondering what would happen next under their new overlords, Taliban (Taliban) captured Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, on Friday morning. The Taliban had taken Herat, a cultural center in western Afghanistan, and Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city, where they originally declared their so-called emirate in the 1990s.
Cities that have been seized
the Taliban
Districts under Taliban rule
Districts that are contested
Controlled by the government
Cities that have been seized
the Taliban
Districts under Taliban rule
Districts that are contested
Controlled by the government
Cities that have been seized
the Taliban
Districts under Taliban rule
Districts that are contested
Controlled by the government
The rapidity with which the cities have crumbled, coupled with American authorities’ declaration on Thursday that the majority of the US Embassy will be evacuated, has heightened the feeling of fear throughout the nation as hundreds attempt to escape the Taliban assault.
Only three major Afghan cities remain under government control: Kabul, Jalalabad, and Mazar-i-Sharif, while one is under Taliban siege. With the fall of Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, the Taliban have essentially taken control of southern Afghanistan, a striking signal of their rebirth only weeks before the US withdraws entirely from the nation.
The Taliban have seized one Afghan city after another in a swift assault over the last week, putting them in a strong position to strike Kabul. The government’s troops seem to be on the verge of collapsing. The Afghan government, according to some American officials, will not survive another month.
The Taliban also took control of Pul-e-Alam, the provincial capital of Logar Province, south of Kabul, and Firoz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor Province, central Afghanistan, on Friday.
“There were sporadic skirmishes last night, but no significant resistance was reported,” said Gul Zaman Naeb, a Ghor Province member of Parliament. “People witnessed Taliban militants in the streets and government offices when they awoke this morning.”
Helmand Province is a dangerous region, with the Taliban controlling most of it since 2015. The Afghan government has struggled to maintain territory in the region in recent months, and recent bombings by the US and Afghan air forces in the area have failed to halt the Taliban advance.
Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, has been on the verge of collapse for more than a decade. The Taliban have long called Helmand home, having expanded there after rising to power in adjacent Kandahar in 1994 and making millions from the illegal selling of opium poppies.
The loss of Lashkar Gah marks a somber conclusion to the American and British military operations in Helmand, which lasted more than a decade in all. Hundreds of soldiers were killed by roadside bombings and violent gunfights as both nations concentrated their efforts on capturing the region.
The Taliban are vying for Kandahar in particular. It is the economic center of southern Afghanistan, as well as the cradle of the insurgency in the 1990s, when it served as the insurgents’ capital for a portion of their five-year reign. The Taliban may essentially declare a return to authority, if not full rule, by capturing the city.
Local elders in Uruzgan and Zabul, two provinces long considered part of the Taliban’s stronghold, claimed on Friday that they were discussing a full surrender of the area to the rebel organization.
Taimoor Shah and Sharif Hassan provided reporting from Kandahar and Kabul, respectively.
On Thursday, President Biden was in New Castle, Delaware. The Biden administration is preparing for the Afghan government to fall apart within the next month. Credit… The New York Times’ Tom Brenner
The Pentagon is sending 3,000 Marines and soldiers to Afghanistan and another 4,000 troops to the area to evacuate the majority of the American Embassy and U.S. residents in Kabul as the Taliban seize provincial capitals at an alarming rate.
It’s a telling indication of the country’s worsening condition, and it seems to back up President Biden’s decision to end America’s longest war.
According to administration and military sources, the Biden administration is preparing for the Afghan government to fall within the next month.
The Taliban’s fast march across the north, along with Afghan security forces’ struggle to hold ever-shrinking territory in the south and west, has prompted the Biden administration to speed up preparations to evacuate Americans.
Mr. Biden also ordered more accelerated flights out of the country for Afghans who had cooperated with the US, after meeting with his senior national security advisors on Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning.
The latest in a series of frightening warnings from the embassy urged Americans to “leave Afghanistan immediately utilizing available commercial travel alternatives.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that an undetermined number of people among the approximately 4,000 embassy employees — including around 1,400 Americans — will be evacuated beginning immediately.
“As we’ve stated from the beginning, the increasing pace of Taliban military operations, as well as the accompanying rise in bloodshed and instability throughout Afghanistan, is of great concern,” he added. “Every day, we evaluate the security situation to see how we can keep people serving at our embassy safe.”
“Let me be absolutely clear about this: The embassy is open,” Mr. Price said.
According to three American sources, American negotiators are also attempting to get guarantees from the Taliban that if they seize control of the country’s government, they would not attack the US Embassy in Kabul.
One possibility is that Kabul might fall in 30 days, but government and military officials believe that this can still be avoided if Afghan security forces can find the will to fight back. However, although Afghan commandos have managed to keep fighting in certain places, they have mostly surrendered in many northern provincial capitals.
Mohammad Ismail Khan, center, visited Herat last week. In the 1990s, he fought against the Taliban after rising to prominence in the mujahedeen fight against the Soviets. Credit… EPA/Jalil Rezayee/Shutterstock
KABUL, Afghanistan — A famous Afghan warlord and former governor surrendered on Friday, authorities said. He had fought Taliban assaults in western Afghanistan for weeks and rallied many to his cause to fight back the militant onslaught.
The surrender of the warlord, Mohammad Ismail Khan, is especially significant for the Taliban since he led a force that might have posed a danger to insurgents in the country’s western area — perhaps even more so than Afghan government troops.
Mr. Khan’s capitulation may set off a trend among warlords and regional power brokers like Mohammed Atta Noor, who is defending the country’s economic center of Mazar-i-Sharif and has gathered forces to protect the city. It was typical for warlord leaders to switch sides at the first indication of opportunity or survival during the civil war in the 1990s.
When the Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Mr. Khan was a young army captain. He came to notoriety after joining the mujahedeen, a U.S.-backed insurgency in Herat that battled the Soviet-backed Communist regime.
In the 1990s, he was a member of the Northern Alliance, which battled the Taliban in western Afghanistan. He was kidnapped by the Taliban and held prisoner for almost two years.
Mr. Khan, who is now in his 70s, took up his rifle last month, organized his militias, and battled alongside Afghan security forces to drive back the Taliban assault on Herat, the capital of the same-named province and the country’s third biggest city.
For his staunch opposition to the Taliban, he became a national celebrity, and millions of Afghans praised him for his leadership against the militants, sharing his pictures on social media and dubbing him the “Lion of Herat.”
Although he originally succeeded in driving the Taliban out of the city, his military successes were insufficient to prevent the city’s collapse.
After a two-week siege, the Taliban took control of Herat on Thursday night, forcing Mr. Khan, senior government officials, and troops to flee to the provincial airport and army corps outside the city.
Mr. Khan and top security officials, including an interior ministry deputy, an army corps commander, and an intelligence director, surrendered to the Taliban this morning, along with hundreds of government troops.
Following Mr. Khan’s surrender, the Taliban’s online media channels released a video of him.
From the back of a car, Mr. Khan told a Taliban member, “I hope all brothers can establish a calm atmosphere so the conflict stops and we can have peace and stability in Afghanistan.”
Insurgents seized almost half of the country’s 34 provincial capitals in little over a week, leading to the fall of Herat and the capitulation of thousands of troops. The key southern city of Kandahar, the country’s second biggest city, and Kunduz, a commercial center in the north, are among the cities that have fallen.
Mr. Khan, who was chosen as Herat governor after the Taliban fell in 2001 and subsequently served as a cabinet member under Hamid Karzai’s presidency, had a remarkable turnaround.
President Ashraf Ghani pushed him aside, along with other warlords, even publicly dismissing Mr. Khan as unworthy of meeting.
Across Afghanistan, the Taliban are claiming cities and territory. With each win, the leaders of Pakistan’s neighboring country face more scrutiny.
The Afghan Taliban have used Pakistan as a safe haven for decades, crossing the country’s mountainous 1,660-mile border with ease. Officials have admitted that Taliban militants have houses and families in Pakistan, far away from the battlefields.
Now that the US military has proclaimed the Afghan war to be finished and the Taliban seem to be closing in on the nation, Washington is putting pressure on Pakistan to reach a diplomatic solution.
While expressing support for a peaceful settlement throughout the world, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration has been more silent at home. It has been silent on pro-Taliban demonstrations in Pakistan. As the Taliban marches on Kabul, it has also failed to denounce alleged Taliban crimes.
The reason for this is because a significant percentage of Pakistanis, even military officials, believe a Taliban triumph is a certain conclusion. Some others, including former military leaders, are openly supporting one.
A collapse in Afghanistan, on the other hand, would pose dangers for Pakistan, including a potential influx of refugees and a boost to Islamist groups targeting Pakistan’s government.
“Pakistan is in a genuine pickle,” said Elizabeth Threlkeld, a South Asia specialist at Washington’s Stimson Center. “Even if Pakistan is worried about spillover violence and a refugee inflow, the Taliban must be kept on board.”
Mr. Khan claimed in a June interview with The New York Times that Pakistan had used the “maximum pressure it could on the Taliban.”
Pakistani authorities deny providing military assistance to the Taliban, claiming that they pushed hard for peace discussions with the Taliban during meetings in Doha, Qatar. In public, they have repeated the position adopted by the US and other signatories to the Doha agreement, warning that if the Taliban seized Afghanistan by force, it would become a pariah state.
However, government officials in other nations claim that Pakistan has leverage that it is not using. It continues to enable Taliban commanders unfettered passage in and out of the country, as well as serving as a safe haven for militants and their families, they claim.
Some opponents, especially in Afghanistan, accuse Pakistan of actively aiding the Taliban assault, claiming that the militants would not have been able to launch such a major operation without help. In Afghanistan and the diaspora, the hashtag movement #SanctionPakistan has acquired traction on social media.
In July, a queue developed at the Kabul passport office. Credit… The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
As the Taliban push on with their ruthless military assault, a huge exodus is taking place throughout Afghanistan, raising concerns of a return to extreme rule or a civil war between ethnically linked militias.
Since the end of May, at least a quarter of a million Afghans have been forced to escape war, with 80 percent of them being women and children, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the organization, told reporters in Geneva on Friday, “This is a shocking number.” “The most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of what is going on on the ground.”
Since the beginning of the year, more than 400,000 individuals have been displaced from their homes, she said.
Many people have flocked to Kabul’s tent camps or crammed into relatives’ houses in cities, which are typically the final bastions of government authority. Thousands more are attempting to get passports and visas in order to escape the country. Others have packed onto smugglers’ pickup pickups in a desperate attempt to cross the border illegally.
Conflict is exacerbating already severe food shortages caused by a drought that is impacting one-third of the population’s food supply.
According to the United Nations, two million youngsters need nutritional assistance. stated the food program It is already providing food to four million Afghans, but it is now attempting to ramp up to nine million by December.
“We worry the worst is yet to come, and a bigger wave of hunger is rapidly approaching,” said Tomson Phiri, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, in Geneva.
Senior UN officials have warned of the increasing dangers of a prolonged civil conflict.
“We are especially worried about the transfer of combat to urban areas, where the potential for civilian damage is much greater,” Stéphane Dujarric, Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesperson, told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday.
Mr. Guterres expressed optimism that talks between the Afghan government, the Taliban, and foreign envoys would lead to a negotiated solution. However, with the Taliban seeming to be hell-bent on taking control of the nation, that objective seems to be slipping away.
According to the Foreign Organization for Migration, as the militants have pushed their assault in recent weeks, the number of Afghans crossing the border illegally has increased by 30 to 40% compared to the time before international forces started leaving in May. Every week, at least 30,000 people are leaving.
Aid organizations warn that the rapid departure is an early indication of a future refugee catastrophe, raising concerns in neighboring nations and Europe.
Afghans already make up one of the world’s biggest refugee and asylum-seeking populations, with approximately three million individuals, and the second-highest number of asylum applications in Europe, behind Syrians.
Although the nation may be entering another violent chapter, the fresh influx of Afghans coincides with a global hardening of views against immigration.
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Lashkar Gah is a battleground in Afghanistan.
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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In Kandahar, a police outpost was destroyed.
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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Kandahar’s displaced families
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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In the city of Kunduz, on the front lines
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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Marja resupply mission
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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Kabul’s passport department
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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Near Mazar-e-Sharif, on the front line
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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Kabul
The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
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The humanitarian situation is worsening as the Taliban seize control of city after city in Afghanistan, raising concerns that the capital, Kabul, may fall in a matter of weeks.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s foreign policy director, met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last month. Associated Press photo
BRUSSELS, BELGIAN REPUBLICAN REPUBLICAN REPU The fast disintegration of Afghanistan’s military forces has shocked Europeans, although Afghanistan has never been seen as a crucial national concern for European countries.
Following the September 11 attacks, NATO went to war in Afghanistan to assist the United States in the banner of collective defense against terrorism. Since then, the terrorist danger in Europe has come from considerably closer to home, with North African and domestic sources being the most common.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s foreign policy director, released a statement Thursday night urging the Taliban to begin negotiations with the Afghan government in Qatar promptly and to respect human rights. He stated that if power is seized by force and an Islamic Emirate is re-established, the Taliban would suffer non-recognition, isolation, and a lack of international assistance, echoing State Department threats.
Despite the $4.6 billion in development assistance it has given, Europe has little influence. European politicians, like others across the globe, are concerned about how long the Afghan government will survive, what will happen to women and girls, judges, and the media if the Taliban retakes power, and the possibility of a fresh wave of Afghan refugee flight.
Ministers from six countries — Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, and Denmark — asked for the repatriation of Afghans whose asylum applications had been denied earlier this week.
However, due to the rapidity with which the country is collapsing, Germany, the Netherlands, and France have stopped the return of Afghans who do not qualify as refugees to Afghanistan.
Brussels is also collaborating with member states to obtain and issue visas for the approximately 100 Afghans who worked for the European Union.
NATO’s motto has always been “in together, out together.” NATO soldiers started departing at a rapid pace when President Biden chose to pull the plug; there is no desire for a return.
There is greater dissatisfaction and even fury in Britain, which fought hard in Afghanistan and has a long history of engagement in the nation.
Lord David Richards, who served as the British government’s head of defense from 2010 to 2013, chastised the administration for acting so swiftly to evacuate Britons. The evacuation, he said on “Newsnight,” is “a implicit, if not explicit, acknowledgment of a terrible failure of geostrategic and statecraft.”
He had wanted to hear “an explanation for why we’re in this situation, and then an explanation for how they intend to avoid this catastrophe,” he added. He described it as “an acknowledgment of failure and a desire to draw people out,” adding, “I’m almost embarrassed that we’re in this situation.”
Last year, Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, was attacked. Credit… The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
The Taliban’s takeover of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, is a major setback for the Afghan government, with symbolic and strategic significance for the rebel organization.
In some respects, the battle for Kandahar was the most crucial for the country’s future.
The militants have been eager to take the city – the Taliban initially established themselves in the city’s surrounding districts in the 1990s before capturing the capital and proclaiming themselves emirs. It is also the largest city in the ethnic Pashtun heartland of Afghanistan’s south.
Given its significance as a symbol of the state’s reach and its position as an economic center vital for commerce to and from Pakistan through its checkpoints, bridges, and roads, the government has been eager to protect it.
For many weeks, the militants had been advancing on Kandahar city, the capital of the same-named province, seizing neighboring districts until finally invading the city on July 9.
At the time, Taliban militants infiltrated Kandahar’s Seventh Police District, seized homes and fighting security troops in fire fights. According to Bahir Ahmadi, a spokesperson for Kandahar’s governor, commandos and other special forces teams fought the militants, advancing carefully since the region is densely inhabited.
As the militants attempted to force their way into the city, the Afghan Air Force attacked a number of Taliban strongholds in surrounding provinces.
In July, US military planes bombed Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan in support of failing Afghan government forces, in one of the first major American responses to the militants’ rapid march throughout the country as US soldiers left.
At least one of the attacks targeted Taliban outposts in Kandahar, halting the Taliban’s progress. A month later, the Taliban’s swift advance would profoundly shock a nation still struggling to come to grips with it.
Last year in Kabul, British troops were part of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission forces. Credit… Associated Press/Rahmat Gul
While the US sends hundreds of soldiers to Afghanistan to evacuate US residents and diplomatic employees, Britain has announced that it would send 600 military personnel to assist British people in leaving the country.
Earlier this month, British officials encouraged all British citizens to leave Afghanistan, and on Thursday, they announced that the embassy’s personnel in Kabul had been reduced to a core team giving support to those remaining in the country.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said, “I have authorized the deployment of additional military personnel to support the diplomatic presence in Kabul, assist British nationals in leaving the country, and support the relocation of former Afghan staff who risked their lives serving alongside us.”
Authorities stated on Thursday that the core staff remaining in Kabul will relocate from the embassy “to a more secure location,” indicating that they believe the post would soon be dangerous.
As the Taliban captured city after city, Britain has rushed to remove former Afghan staff members who served with British troops. The defense ministry said it has assisted more than 3,000 former Afghan staff members and their families in relocating under a program that began in April, with 1,800 of them coming in the past few weeks.
After a 13-year involvement that saw 9,500 soldiers stationed across more than 130 sites in Helmand Province alone, British combat forces departed from Afghanistan in 2014. The Taliban took control of Lashkar Gah, the province’s capital, on Friday morning.
British opposition leaders backed the evacuation of British citizens, but at least one prominent member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party said deploying soldiers to assist with the pullout was “a sign of failure.”
“The decision to leave is like a rug yanked from under the feet of our partners,” said Tom Tugendhat, a former member of the British military services who is now the head of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“Instead of a long-term, gradually developing peace, we’re seeing a rout. Mr. Tugendhat said, “Of course we are.”
The Taliban demolished a police station in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after temporarily overrunning it earlier this month. Credit… The New York Times’ Jim Huylebroek
Even analysts have been shocked by how quickly the country is crumbling as American forces approach the end of their departure, with the Taliban sweeping across the country and the Afghan government holding only three major towns.
The Taliban’s summer military campaign was followed by a rapid assault through a dozen provincial capitals, compelling Afghan government troops to surrender and flee in large numbers.
The Taliban’s military successes, particularly in northern Afghanistan, where the insurgents have historically faced the most resistance, have given a brutal conclusion to America’s longest conflict.
History is throwing a long shadow over the United States as it prepares to depart the nation.
What was the motivation for the US invasion of Afghanistan?
In 2012, an American aircraft flew over Kandahar. Credit… The New York Times/Tyler Hicks
President George W. Bush declared weeks after Al Qaeda struck the United States on September 11, 2001, that American troops had begun strikes in Afghanistan against the terrorist organization and Taliban objectives.
Mr. Bush said that the Taliban, who ruled most of Afghanistan at the time, had refused to hand up Al Qaeda leaders who had plotted the attacks from within the country. “And now the Taliban will pay a price,” he added, adding that he wanted to bring Qaeda commanders to trial.
Even back then, President George W. Bush cautioned that Operation Enduring Freedom would be a “long campaign unlike any other we have ever seen.”
Osama bin Laden, the Qaeda chief, and other senior commanders had escaped to Pakistan, a putative US ally, by December 2001. Because American troops did not follow them, Pakistan became a safe haven for Taliban leaders and militants, who crossed the border in future years to assault American and Afghan forces.
As 2001 came to a conclusion, American soldiers in Afghanistan swiftly deposed the Taliban regime and destroyed its combat forces.
What happened to the operation in Afghanistan?
In May, students at Sheberghan’s Marshal Dostum School. Credit… The New York Times’ Kiana Hayeri
Following the Taliban’s defeat, the US and NATO turned their attention to rebuilding a failed state and establishing a Western-style democracy, spending billions to rebuild a desperately poor country that had already been ravaged by two decades of war, first under Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then during the civil war that followed.
Early on, there were some successes. A government that is pro-Western has been established. New schools, hospitals, and public buildings have been constructed. Thousands of females who had been denied access to education due to Taliban control went to school. The Taliban generally kept women at home, although they went to college, entered the workforce, and participated in Parliament and the administration. A vibrant and independent news media arose.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in rebuilding and investment funds were stolen or misused, however. The government was unable to fulfill its people’ most basic requirements. Its authority seldom stretched beyond Kabul, the capital, and other large cities.
What transpired on the battleground?
A roadside bomb in Kunduz in 2010 damaged a US Army armored vehicle. Credit… The New York Times/Damon Winter
Despite a continuous inflow of American and NATO soldiers attempting to win over Afghans with promises of new schools, administrative offices, roads, and bridges, the Taliban strengthened their combat skills.
With the Taliban presenting a greater military threat, President Barack Obama launched a “surge” in Afghanistan, bringing the total number of soldiers to over 100,000 by mid-2010. Despite American combat power and airstrikes, the Taliban became stronger, inflicting significant losses on Afghan security forces.
In May of that year, a U.S. Osama bin Laden was assassinated by a Navy SEAL team in a complex near a Pakistan military training school in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where he had been residing for years. Mr. Obama said in June that by 2014, he would begin sending American troops home and take over security to the Afghans.
By that time, the Pentagon had decided that the war could not be won militarily and that the only way to finish the fight – the third in three centuries involving a global power — was to negotiate a settlement. In the 19th century, Afghan warriors beat the British army, and in the 20th century, they overcame the Russian military.
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