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16-08-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies
KABUL/ WASHINGTON/ ISLAMABAD: It’s just past 4:00 am there, and many in the country will undoubtedly be waking up to a completely changed country. Here’s what’s happened over the last few hours:
The Taliban has effectively gained control of Afghanistan – meeting with little resistance as they made their way into the Afghan capital of Kabul – they have claimed victory
The country’s President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country – reportedly seeking refuge in Uzbekistan
A Taliban spokesperson said the group sought a “peaceful transfer of power”, adding that people in Kabul were “safe” but chaos has been unfolding at Kabul’s airport as foreigners, Afghan officials and others try to leave; all commercial flights have been suspended.
The Taliban entered Kabul on Sunday and President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed, bringing the insurgents 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 airport, 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 Taliban’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 September 11, 2001 attacks.
Insurgents entered the presidential palace and took control of it, two senior Taliban commanders in Kabul said. A television later showed footage of what it said were Taliban commanders in the palace with dozens of armed fighters.
Nations such as the UK, Germany, Canada and the US are using military planes to pluck their nationals out of Afghanistan, while scrambling to evacuate Afghans who worked with their troops
Activists are expressing concerns for women in Afghanistan amid reports the Taliban are already forcing changes in some parts of the country
Overnight, the American flag at the US embassy in Kabul has been taken down – marking the final step in the evacuation of staff from the embassy.
According to a media report, “almost all” of the embassy’s staffs are already at the city’s Hamid Karzai international airport waiting for evacuation.
The US has sent an additional 1,000 troops to aid with the process, meaning that 6,000 military personnel are on the ground at the moment.
An unnamed official earlier said that the rapid advance of the Taliban would not change its withdrawal plans.
US to take over air traffic control in Kabul
The US military will be taking over air traffic control in Kabul as it rushes to get embassy staff out of the country.
A State department statement said that this was one among a number of steps to facilitate speedy evacuation of “US and allied personnel”.
Just a reminder that this comes amidst the scenes of chaos we’re seeing at the Kabul airport – as thousands are rushing to flee Afghanistan.
The statement added that the US would accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans who were eligible for special viasas – saying that nearly 2,000 of these people had already arrived in the US over the past two weeks.
Reporting the news with the Taliban behind him
The video journalist Malik Mudassir, normally behind the camera, has now stepped on screen, providing real time reports even as the Taliban patrolled the streets behind him.
“I can just see them from here, patrolling the streets,” he reported for the BBC’s news at ten.
A video of Mudassir’s reporting has been liked more than 1,000 times, with many praising his calm demeanor even in the face of danger.
“Nothing compares to real-time reporting and he was brilliant,” said one social media user. “Everyone must be terrified and he is so brave to do what he did. I hope he is safe.”
In his report, Mudassir describes how people in the city have been trying to flee – families with women and children among them.
“I could see them trying to get out; they looked depressed, devastated and defeated.”
US says Afghan army collapsed ‘quicker than anticipated’
US leaders are conceding they miscalculated the strength of the Afghan army they had directly trained and supported for the past 20 years.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN earlier.
President Biden had expressed faith in the 300,000-strong Afghan forces left to defend the country as late as last week. The Taliban, in comparison, are estimated to have 50-100,000 full-time fighters but without the on-the-ground US support, reports are that government forces quickly surrendered to the Taliban advance in regional districts and cities. Officers vanished from checkpoints, while in other cases soldiers fled.
The Taliban claimed their first city Zaranj on 6 August. Within 10 days they then claimed all provincial capitals and were at the capital, Kabul.
Latest on the chaos at Kabul airport
There are scenes of utter panic and chaos at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai international airport as tens of thousands of people try to fly out of the country.
People have been flocking there since last evening in a last desperate effort to escape the Taliban.
There were earlier reports that civilians had been injured on the tarmac as the attempts to flee at times resembled a stampede.
The 6,000 US troops tasked for security duty in Kabul will now instead be sent to secure the entire perimeter of the airport, reports say.
The US Department of State and Department of Defense on Afghanistan have said they are “completing a series of steps to secure the airport… to enable the safe departure of US and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights”.
Taliban’s dominance was swift and unexpected
On 8 July, President Joe Biden poured cold water on the theory that the Taliban could swiftly conquer Afghanistan.
“The jury is still out,” he said, speaking at the White House last month, “but the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
Yet, just weeks after this pronouncement, little of the country remains in government control.
UK to help Afghan Chevening scholars with visas
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that efforts would be made to provide visas to Afghan students who were earlier blocked from taking up prestigious British scholarships.
Chevening Scholarships enable promising students around the world to pursue a masters degree in the UK.
The Foreign Office had initially said the situation in Afghanistan meant the British Embassy there would not finish preparations in time for this year.
The decision affected around 35 Afghan students. Around half of them are believed to be women.
“We are doing whatever we can to accelerate their visas to get them over as well,” Boris Johnson told broadcaster Sky News earlier.
MP Ian Blackford later tweeted that the process was successful.
Why is there a war in Afghanistan?
After 20 years of war, foreign forces are pulling out of Afghanistan. It has been the US’ longest-running conflict on foreign soil.
But why did the US go to Afghanistan in the first place in the wake of the 9/11 attacks? Why did they remove the Taliban regime?
Why has the war dragged on for so many years, and what has led to the Taliban’s resurgence?
Trump joins chorus of criticism against Biden
President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump has issued a new call for the US president to “resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan”.
He has also claimed that the US’ withdrawal would be “much different and much more successful” were he still president.
The Biden team has hit back saying that the US-Taliban exit deal was negotiated under Trump’s presidency.
However, exact details of the exit were left up to Biden’s administration. The BBC’s North America editor Jon Sopel earlier wrote that the “policy may have been framed by Donald Trump but Joe Biden owns this unfolding chaos.
The pace at which the Taliban has taken control of the country has caused Biden to come under enormous criticism. Officials in his administration are now admitting that they over-estimated the capacity of Afghan troops.
Secretary of state Anthony Blinken told media that the fall of the country “has happened more quickly than we anticipated.”
