The Pentagon is sending 3,000 troops back into Afghanistan to help evacuate some personnel from the US embassy amid the Taliban’s surging encroachment on the capital city of Kabul.
Those 3,000 troops, part of three infantry battalions, are in addition to the over 650 US service members still currently stationed in Afghanistan.
Another 3,500 to 4,000 reserve forces will be stationed in Kuwait on standby, and another 1,000 will go to Qatar to help with Special Immigrant Visa processing.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said: ‘We believe this is it the prudent thing to do given the rapidly deteriorating security situation in and around Kabul.’
The Taliban have taken the strategically important city of Ghazni, the 10th provincial capital to fall to the militants in less than a week.
Afghan security forces arrested Ghazni’s governor and his deputy after they fled the city.
Ghazni is on the major Kabul-Kandahar motorway, linking militant strongholds in the south to the capital, Kabul.
Taking Ghazni is thought to increase the likelihood that the Taliban could eventually aim to take Kabul itself.
Afghan Ambassador to the US slams Biden for suggesting there is a ‘political solution’ to Taliban onslaught
Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United States has slammed President Biden for suggesting there’s a ‘political solution’ to the onslaught of violent Taliban fighters amid fears Kabul could fall to them within 30 days.
Responding to Defense Department Press Secretary John Kirby’s claim that it was no longer feasible for the US to offer air support to Afghan forces, Adela Raz said: ‘But it is feasible because you did that. You did that post-9/11 and it you took control of the entire country in 2 weeks.’
Afghan government could fall to Taliban in 90 days, say US officials
US officials have warned that Afghanistan’s government could fall in 90 days, with Kabul isolated in as little as a month, as the Taliban overran the central Sarposa prison in Kandahar, the country’s second largest city, releasing almost 1,000 prisoners.
The fall of Kandahar – sometimes called the capital of the south – would be a devastating blow for the Afghan government after a week in which the Taliban have swept up provincial capitals around the country in a lightning offensive.
The Taliban fighters we meet are stationed just 30 minutes from one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, Mazar-i-Sharif.
The “ghanimat” or spoils of war they’re showing off include a Humvee, two pick-up vans and a host of powerful machine guns. Ainuddin, a stony-faced former madrassa (religious school) student who’s now a local military commander, stands at the centre of a heavily-armed crowd.
The insurgents have been capturing new territory on what seems like a daily basis as international troops have all but withdrawn. Caught in the middle is a terrified population.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. diplomat who negotiated a withdrawal deal with the Taliban last year, is back in Doha, Qatar, desperately trying to cobble together some kind of face-saving agreement for the Afghan government that would allow them to leave the country alive.
Joe Biden urges Afghans to ‘fight for their nation’ as Taliban advance continues
Joe Biden has urged the Afghan government to “fight for their nation” even as a Taliban offensive continued to make rapid gains, taking yet another provincial capital.
Faizabad, the provincial capital of the northern Badakhshan province, fell overnight to the Taliban, which control 65% of the country and nine out of 34 provincial capitals as the US and Nato finalise their withdrawal after a decades-long war.
Two days ago I had to flee my home and life in the north of Afghanistan after the Taliban took my city. I am still on the run and there is no safe place for me to go.
Last week I was a news journalist. Today I can’t write under my own name or say where I am from or where I am. My whole life has been obliterated in just a few days.
I am so scared and I don’t know what will happen to me. Will I ever go home? Will I see my parents again? Where will I go? The highway is blocked in both directions. How will I survive?
US vows to isolate Taliban if they take power by force
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession.
That’ll scare em.
Taliban captures its SEVENTH city in five days as Pentagon says there’s ‘not much’ US can do to help the Afghan army
The Taliban has captured its seventh regional capital and attacked a major city today as jihadist fighters continue to push back beleaguered government forces.
Farah, capital of western Farah province, fell to the Islamists on Tuesday afternoon following a ‘brief’ fight with security forces, local officials said. Militants are now in control of the governor’s office and police headquarters.
Meanwhile the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest in the country’s north, also came under attack from the Taliban, though government forces said they had repelled an initial assault.
Chinese, Russian militaries hold drills in northwest China amid uncertainty in Afghanistan
The Taliban seized a sixth Afghan provincial capital on Monday following a weekend blitz across the north that saw urban centres fall in quick succession and the government struggle to keep the militants at bay.
Insurgents entered Aibak without a fight after community elders pleaded with officials to spare the city from more violence following weeks of clashes on the outskirts, said Sefatullah Samangani, deputy governor of Samangan province.
“The governor accepted and withdrew all the forces from the city,” Samangani added, saying the Taliban were now in “full control”.
UK tells its nationals to leave Afghanistan immediately
The British government has told all UK nationals to leave Afghanistan immediately as fighting intensifies between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces.
The announcement came just hours after the Taliban ambushed and killed the director of Afghanistan’s government media center in Kabul on Friday.
Britain’s Foreign Office warned that “terrorists are very likely to try to carry out attacks” amid a drawdown of international troops stationed there.
Seems only a matter of time before the Taliban rules. So much for “Nation Building”. Good luck to the Chinese and the Russians!
“The Taliban will have no mercy on us and the government won’t stop the bombing.”
The resident of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan is one of thousands trapped or fleeing for their lives as fighting for control of the city rages between militants and government forces.
The BBC is not naming some interviewees in this article for security reasons.
“There are corpses on the roads. We do not know if they are civilians or the Taliban,” the man told the BBC Afghan service in an interview on Whatsapp. “Dozens of families have fled their homes and settled near the Helmand river.”
Taliban executed 900 people in six weeks as the Islamists overran Kandahar province
The Taliban executed some 900 people in six weeks in just one province as its fighters overran government troops, a police chief has claimed
Targets included police officers, tribal elders, civil activists, and even a popular comedian who were dragged from their homes and killed in southern Kandahar province, the region’s former head of police Tadin Khan said.
Islamist fighters have now recaptured much of the province and have laid siege to the regional capital – also named Kandahar – as they push to retake control of the country following US troop withdrawal.
A suicide-bomb and gun attack in Kabul’s Green Zone that targeted Afghanistan’s acting defence minister and killed eight people on Tuesday was claimed by the Taliban, as the hardline Islamist group continued to escalate violence across the country.
The suicide bombing, which targeted the house used by Bismillah Mohammadi, was one of the most significant in the Afghan capital in recent months. It came amid heavy fighting in the south and west of the country as the Taliban have sought to take three key cities.
The attack took place in the wealthy Sherpur neighbourhood, located in a section of the capital known as the Green Zone, where security is tight.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the hastened withdrawal of foreign forces has led to the worsening situation on the battlefield, as the Taliban renewed assaults on major cities.
“The reason for our current situation is that the decision [to withdraw international troops] was taken abruptly,” Ashraf Ghani told the country’s parliament on Monday.
Presenting his security plan, Ghani expressed hope that the situation on the ground will be “under control within six months.”
Corrupt leadership and a military plagued by an unwillingness to fight may have something to do with it as well.
Kabul: As war rages across the countryside, young Afghans are plugging in their earphones and logging into audio-based app Clubhouse to argue with the Taliban and pitch counter-offensive tactics.
Launched in the United States at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform acts as a giant conference call and first found popularity among American tech entrepreneurs as a forum for discussing start-ups and cryptocurrencies.
In a conflict zone, it can have the rare power of connecting ordinary citizens with extremists waging fear and destruction.
Afghan forces are battling to stop a first provincial city from falling to the Taliban following weekend offensives from the insurgents on urban centres in a major escalation in fighting.
Taliban fighters assaulted at least three provincial capitals overnight – Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat – after a weekend of heavy fighting that resulted in thousands of civilians fleeing the advancing militants.
Fighting raged in Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s provincial capital, where the Taliban launched coordinated attacks on the city centre and its prison hours after the government announced the deployment of hundreds of commandos to the area.
The Taliban have rarely experienced difficulty handling Afghan forces.
The Taliban’s surge in Afghanistan as the United States completes its withdrawal could lead to an “existential crisis,” a U.S. oversight report said.
The situation in Afghanistan is “bleak,” and the “overall trend is clearly unfavorable to the Afghan government,” a letter from the Special Inspector General John Sopko that accompanied Wednesday’s quarterly report to Congress read.
Plainly stated the corrupt Afghan government will be replaced by a corrupt Taliban government.
