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14-08-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies
KABUL: The Afghan Taliban tightened their territorial stranglehold around Kabul on Saturday, as refugees from the insurgents’ relentless offensive flooded the capital and US Marines returned to oversee emergency evacuations.
With the country’s second- and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become the besieged, last stand for government forces who have offered little or no resistance elsewhere.
Insurgent fighters are now camped just 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, leaving the United States and other countries scrambling to airlift their nationals out of Kabul ahead of a feared all-out assault.
US embassy staff were ordered to begin shredding and burning sensitive material, as units from a planned re-deployment of 3,000 American troops started arriving to secure the airport and oversee the evacuations.
A host of European countries, including Britain, Germany, Denmark and Spain — all announced the withdrawal of personnel from their respective embassies on Friday.
For Kabul residents and the tens of thousands who have sought refuge there in recent weeks, the overwhelming mood was one of confusion and fear of what lies ahead.
“We don’t know what is going on,” one resident, Khairddin Logari, told media.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by accounts of poor treatment of women in areas seized by the Taliban.
“It is particularly horrifying and heartbreaking to see reports of the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women being ripped away,” Guterres said.
The scale and speed of the Taliban advance has shocked Afghans and the US-led alliance that poured billions into the country after toppling the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks nearly 20 years ago.
Days before a final US withdrawal ordered by President Joe Biden, individual soldiers, units and even whole divisions have surrendered, handing the insurgents even more vehicles and military hardware to fuel their lightning advance.
‘No imminent threat’
Despite the frantic evacuation efforts, the Biden administration continues to insist that a complete Taliban takeover is not inevitable.
“Kabul is not right now in an imminent threat environment,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday, while acknowledging that Taliban fighters were “trying to isolate” the city.
The Taliban offensive has accelerated in recent days, with the capture of Herat in the north and, just hours later, the seizure of Kandahar, the group’s spiritual heartland in the south.
Kandahar resident Abdul Nafi told media the city was calm after government forces abandoned it for the sanctuary of military facilities outside, where they were negotiating terms of surrender.
“I came out this morning, I saw Taliban white flags in most squares of the city,” he said. “I thought it might be the first day of Eid.”
Pro-Taliban social media accounts have boasted of the vast spoils of war captured by the insurgents — posting photos of armored vehicles, heavy weapons, and even a drone seized by their fighters at abandoned military bases.
In Herat, the Taliban captured long-time strongman Ismail Khan, who helped lead the defence of the provincial capital along with his militia fighters.
Pul-e-Alam, capital of Loghar province, was the latest city to fall on Friday, putting the Taliban within striking distance of Kabul.
Helicopters flitted back and forth between Kabul’s airport and the sprawling US diplomatic compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone, 46 years after choppers evacuated Americans from Saigon, signaling the end of the Vietnam War.
The US-led evacuation is focused on thousands of people, including embassy employees, and Afghans and their families who fear retribution for working as interpreters or in other support roles for the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Kirby said that most of the troops shepherding the evacuation would be in place by Sunday and “will be able to move thousands per day” out of Afghanistan. “Capacity is not going to be a problem,” he said.
Earlier, Kabul does not face an “imminent threat” from the Taliban but the insurgents are seeking to isolate the capital amid rapid gains elsewhere in Afghanistan, the US Defense Department said Friday.
“Kabul is not right now in an imminent threat environment,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters, “but clearly,” he said, “if you just look at what the Taliban has been doing you can see that they are trying to isolate Kabul.”
“It is not unlike the way they have operated in other places of the country, isolating provincial capitals and sometimes being able to force a surrender without necessarily much bloodshed,” Kirby said.
The Taliban on Thursday overran Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, days after the United States completed most of its withdrawal from a 20-year military involvement.
President Joe Biden has stood firm on his decision to end the US war but authorized the deployment of 3,000 troops to evacuate embassy staff and Afghan allies from Kabul.
The Pentagon acknowledged its concerns about the situation on the ground but made clear that the United States believed that the Afghan military was now responsible.
“We have noted with great concern the speed with which they have been moving and the lack of resistance that they have faced, and we have been nothing but honest about that,” Kirby said.
“We want to see the will and the political leadership — the military leadership — that’s required in the field,” he said.
“Whether it pans out or not, that’s really for the Afghans to decide,” he added. “No outcome has to be inevitable.”
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani finally addressed the nation as the Taliban advance across country and around Kabul continues.
Under the current situation, remobilization the Afghan Security Forces is our top priority, we will bring you the latest as it comes in, Ghani said.
Thousands of civilians fled to the relative safety of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, as the Taliban took control of city after city.Now the militants are closing in there, too, and there have been reports of US airstrikes on Taliban positions at the gates of Kabul province.
The latest US intelligence assessment suggests they could try to advance on the city within 30 days.
Their string of captures across the country over the past week has been lightening fast.
Yesterday the Taliban captured Pul-e-Alam, capital of Loghar province, 80km (50 miles) from Kabul.
Even closer – violent clashes have broken out in Maidan Shar, a provincial capital just 40km (25 miles) from Kabul.
The Taliban now control about half of Afghanistan’s regional capitals after seizing some of its most important centres, including the country’s second-largest city Kandahar.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the situation in Afghanistan is spinning out of control and civilians would pay the highest price if the conflict continued.
Taliban frontline commanders and foot soldiers told media that they were determined to re-impose their version of Sharia law, which would include stoning for adultery, amputation of limbs for theft and preventing girls from going to school beyond the age of 12.
Furthermore, Canadian officials have announced that they will expand a resettlement program to take in about 20,000 Afghan refugees.
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters the country was “showing tangible leadership” with the scheme, which will focus on those who are “particularly vulnerable” including human rights activists and women leaders.
“The situation in Afghanistan is heartbreaking and Canada will not stand idly by,” Mendicino said at a press conference.
Appearing alongside him, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said protecting the Canadian embassy staff in Kabul was a “top priority”.
On the other side, the US says an evacuation force of 3,000 troops has begun arriving in Afghanistan, and most will have touched down by the end of the weekend.
America intends to airlift thousands of people a day out of Kabul, including most of the staff at its embassy in Kabul.
Meanwhile the UK, which is sending 600 troops to aid the evacuation of British nationals and former Afghan staff, has said staffing at its embassy would be reduced to an absolute minimum. Germany plans to do the same.
Denmark and Norway are closing their embassies altogether.
How the Taliban gained ground so quickly
The speed of the Taliban advance in Afghanistan appears to have taken many by surprise.
So how did it unravel so quickly?
The US and its Nato allies – including the UK – have spent the best part of the last 20 years training and equipping the Afghan security forces.
The Afghan government should, in theory, still hold the upper hand with a larger force at its disposal. Afghan security forces number more than 300,000, on paper at least.
But the Afghan army and police have a troubled history of high casualties, desertions and corruption.
Desperation as thousands flee the Taliban
The security situation in Afghanistan is causing a humanitarian crisis.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Many have fled to the capital Kabul, where they are sleeping on the streets and barely able to access basic needs.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres has said the situation is spinning out of control, and has appealed to neighbouring countries to keep their borders open to allow people to reach safety.
