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Taliban seize two key Afghan cities as U.S. evacuates embassy workers

Taliban seize two key Afghan cities as U.S. evacuates embassy staff

Taliban fighters stand over a damaged police vehicle along the roadside in Kandahar on August 13, 2021.

AFP | Getty Images

The Taliban overtook two of Afghanistan’s largest cities, the latest conquests for the insurgents who are rapidly wresting control of the country just weeks before the U.S. was set to complete its withdrawal of troops there.

Islamist militants captured Kandahar, the second-most populous city in the country, as well as the third-largest city of Herat, NBC News reported Friday, citing a Taliban spokesman and local Afghan officials.

The insurgents have now seized at least half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, taking control of roughly two-thirds of the nation and encircling Kabul, where the U.S. Embassy is preparing to evacuate all but its core diplomatic personnel.

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Afghan government security forces have crumpled and many civilians have fled their homes amid the Taliban’s surprisingly swift advance toward the nation’s power center.

But the White House on Friday morning said Biden stands by his decision to end the U.S. presence in Afghanistan after nearly two decades of fighting in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“The President is firmly focused on how we can continue to execute an orderly drawdown and protect our men and women serving in Afghanistan,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.

“You heard him earlier this week: he does not regret his decision,” Psaki said.

In addition to the deployment of three infantry battalions from the Marines and Army to Kabul, a U.S. infantry brigade will be positioned on standby in Kuwait. Another 1,000-member unit comprising Army and Air Force personnel will deploy to Qatar to help process special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals who assisted U.S. and NATO troops during the war.

US national flag is reflected on the windows of the US embassy building in Kabul on July 30, 2021.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Nevertheless, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the U.S. still expects to fully withdraw all troops by the end of August.

Britain said Thursday it will send about 600 troops to help its citizens leave Afghanistan, where about 4,000 U.K. nationals are believed to be stationed. Canada is also deploying special forces to the country to evacuate staff in the Canadian Embassy in Kabul.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.

— CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

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Three extra main cities are underneath Taliban management, as the federal government’s forces close to collapse.

Three more major cities are under Taliban control, as the government’s forces near collapse.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Three large cities in western and southern Afghanistan were confirmed to have fallen to the Taliban as the insurgent race for control of the country accelerated.

The Taliban captured Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, on Friday morning after a week-long battle that left parts of the city to rubble, hospitals full of wounded and dying, and residents asking what would come next under their new rulers. Hours earlier, the insurgents had captured Herat, a cultural center in the west, and Kandahar, the country’s second largest city, where the Taliban first proclaimed their so-called emirate in the 1990s.

The speed of urban collapse, combined with the announcement by American officials Thursday that they would evacuate most of the U.S. embassy, ​​has compounded panic across the country as thousands attempt to flee the Taliban’s advance.

Only three large Afghan cities – including the capital Kabul – remain under state control, one is besieged by the Taliban. With the collapse of Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, the Taliban now effectively control southern Afghanistan, a powerful symbol of their resurrection, just weeks before the United States will withdraw completely from the country.

Last week, the Taliban took over Afghan cities in a swift offensive, placing them well-positioned to attack Kabul. The government’s armed forces appear to be on the verge of complete collapse. Some American officials fear that the Afghan government will not hold out for another month.

Helmand Province is an unstable area that has been largely controlled by the Taliban since 2015. In recent months, the Afghan government has struggled to hold its own there, and recent air strikes by the United States and the Afghan Air Forces in the region have failed to halt the Taliban’s offensive.

Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, has been on the brink of disaster for more than a decade. Helmand has long been the home of the Taliban, which after the rise of the group in neighboring Kandahar in 1994 spread into the province and earned millions there from the illegal sale of opium poppies.

The fall of Lashkar Gah is a sad coda for the American and British military missions to Helmand, which together lasted over a decade. Both countries focused much of their efforts on securing the province, losing hundreds of troops there to roadside bombs and brutal shootings.

Kandahar in particular is a huge asset to the Taliban. It is the economic center of southern Afghanistan, and it was the birthplace of the uprisings in the 1990s and served as the militant capital for part of their five-year rule. By conquering the city, the Taliban can effectively proclaim a return to power, if not complete control.

On Friday, officials from Uruzgan and Zabul, two provinces long believed to be the Taliban’s heartland, said local elders in both are negotiating a full surrender of the territory to the insurgent group.

Taimoor Shah in Kandahar contributed to the coverage.

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Taliban Advances in Afghanistan Might Deliver Political Peril for Biden

Taliban Advances in Afghanistan Could Bring Political Peril for Biden

When President Biden announced his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the politics seemed relatively simple: Many polls showed that Americans supported ending the country’s nearly 20-year involvement in a war whose goals had become obscure.

But four months later, with the Taliban storming across the country much faster and more ruthlessly than expected, new political risks are coming into view for Mr. Biden, who had hoped to win credit for ending what he has called one of America’s “forever wars.”

Now U.S. officials are racing to evacuate Afghans who assisted the American military and may be targets of Taliban reprisals, and are contemplating the prospect of hastily evacuating the 4,000 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Kabul.

The threat of a Taliban conquest and new risks to U.S. personnel and allies in the country could cause Americans who had been paying little attention to Afghanistan for the past several years to reconsider their views, particularly if Republicans amplify a message of American failure and capitulation.

“Everybody’s worried about a repeat of the Saigon images,” said Brian Katulis, a foreign policy expert at the liberal Center for American Progress, referring to the chaotic April 1975 evacuation of the American Embassy in South Vietnam’s capital. Desperate Vietnamese clung to the struts of departing helicopters as the city was being conquered by Communist forces.

Americans remain focused on domestic matters like the coronavirus and the economy, and are unlikely to care much that the Taliban have captured unfamiliar cities like Kunduz, said Mr. Katulis, who has studied public opinion about foreign policy.

“But this could change,” he added. “If you have a parade of horribles continue to unfold in Afghanistan, it could seep into the public consciousness the way Iraq did in 2013 and 2014” when the Islamic State stormed across that country after American troops withdrew.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Biden said he did “not regret” his decision, noting that the United States continued to support Afghanistan’s government and security forces but adding, “They’ve got to fight for themselves.”

Officials in the Biden administration have repeatedly expressed hope that negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government might produce a peaceful resolution short of a Kabul-based Taliban emirate, but prospects for successful talks are swiftly fading.

Fortunately for Mr. Biden, many Republicans in Congress have turned against foreign military adventures and supported a full exit from Afghanistan, to which President Donald J. Trump first committed last year when he struck a deal with the Taliban. Under the agreement, the group halted its attacks on U.S. forces and began peace talks with the Afghan government.

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Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden were in sync with public opinion. Polls have shown for years that a plurality of Americans support withdrawing from Afghanistan, with a majority supporting either a full exit or a smaller U.S. presence.

But as the U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul appears more imperiled, some prominent Republicans are increasing their criticism of Mr. Biden.

“Reality was clear to everyone but the very top of the Biden administration,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, said in remarks on Monday on the Senate floor, as he noted prior warnings that the Taliban might quickly overwhelm the Afghan government’s security forces. “From their bizarre choice of a symbolic Sept. 11th deadline to the absence of any concrete plan, the administration’s decision appears to have rested on wishful thinking and not much else.”

“No one should pretend they’re surprised the Taliban is winning now that we abandoned our Afghan partners,” Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, said in a statement on Tuesday.

But Mr. Sasse also nodded to the complicated political dynamic in which Mr. Biden is delivering on a promise made by Mr. Trump.

“Our troops served America and our allies admirably, but the last administration and the present administration chose to give up the fight,” Mr. Sasse said.

Updated 

Aug. 11, 2021, 9:06 p.m. ET

It may be a consolation to Biden administration officials that Mr. Trump is unlikely to join in the attacks. The former president, who made U.S. troop withdrawals a key campaign theme in the 2020 election, pressed his generals in vain to accelerate the American exit.

And Mr. Trump reiterated his support for leaving Afghanistan as recently as April, when he attacked Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, in a statement as a “warmongering fool” who “wants to stay in the Middle East and Afghanistan for another 19 years, but doesn’t consider the big picture — Russia and China!”

“If Trump is the Republican nominee again, I think it would be hard for him to criticize Biden for executing a plan that Trump put into motion,” said Richard Fontaine, the chief executive of the Center for a New American Security and a former foreign policy adviser to the hawkish Republican senator John McCain.

“Trump didn’t just open the door” to a withdrawal, Mr. Fontaine added. “What he did was force the issue in a way that it hadn’t been forced before.”

But Mr. Fontaine, who opposes the American troop withdrawal, said that major political and security risks remained for Mr. Biden. He argued that domestic support for leaving Afghanistan had never been intense, coming nowhere near the mass demonstrations opposing the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

And he said that the possibility of a Taliban takeover followed by a return to the country of the group’s longtime Qaeda allies would be a huge liability for Mr. Biden.

“Polls show that a majority of Americans want to leave Afghanistan,” Mr. Fontaine said. “But they also show that if you ask Americans about their foreign policy or national security objectives, they will almost always rank preventing terrorist attacks on the United States as No. 1 or 2, and they will rank extracting America from military operations overseas far below that.”

Mr. Trump’s top lieutenants, who frequently lead political attacks on Mr. Biden, are similarly constrained in their ability to turn events in Afghanistan against him.

Mike Pompeo, who as secretary of state attended the signing ceremony in Qatar of Mr. Trump’s deal with Taliban leaders, has repeatedly attacked the Biden administration as weak on foreign policy.

In an appearance this week on Fox News, however, Mr. Pompeo — who is contemplating a 2024 presidential bid — called the troop withdrawal “the right thing to do.”

In language that closely echoed Mr. Biden’s recent remarks, he added: “This is now the Afghans’ fight.”

Some prominent supporters of a military withdrawal from Afghanistan say that Mr. Biden has little to worry about in political terms, noting that his decision enjoyed broad bipartisan support, including from politically diverse veterans’ groups.

“I think that the American public is much more likely to see what’s happening right now, as tragic and worrisome as it is, as ultimately the failure of two decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan,” said Kate Kizer, the policy director of the anti-interventionist group Win Without War.

“It’s important to remember that the reason the public supports a military withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as from Iraq, is that they think these wars themselves are a mistake and failure,” she added.

Ms. Kizer said she worried that some “members of the foreign policy establishment in Washington took the lesson from Iraq that chaos ensues when the U.S. withdraws” and would be quick to press for renewed American intervention.

Mr. Katulis said he could imagine pressure for an American return to Afghanistan, years after President Barack Obama reluctantly sent troops back to Iraq after the Islamic State began to capture and execute American hostages.

Such a scenario would likely require worst-case outcomes, he said, like the killings of Americans or senior Afghan government officials. (After the Taliban first conquered Kabul in 1996, militants captured the country’s president, Mohammad Najibullah, shot him in the head and hung his beaten body from a tower.)

For now, Mr. Katulis said, “people care more about their bridges and roads getting fixed. Afghanistan right now is out of sight, out of mind.”

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Afghanistan conflict will unfold past borders as Taliban advances: negotiator

Afghanistan war will spread beyond borders as Taliban advances: negotiator

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Taliban’s blitz of Afghan territory expanded on Wednesday, with the insurgents asserting control over nine of the country’s 34 provincial capitals.

Afghan and U.S. officials have warned of catastrophic violence in the war-torn country of 39 million as the deadline approaches for all U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of August.

Nader Nadery, a senior member of the Afghan Peace Negotiation Team, expressed grave concern over the rapidly worsening situation while speaking to CNBC on Wednesday.

“If the Taliban advances militarily, the region will be burned. This war will not be contained within the borders of Afghanistan,” Nadery told CNBC’s Capital Connection.

Asked what he saw as the most immediate danger to the international community, Nadery, who lived through decades of turmoil in Afghanistan, described a potential swell in terrorist activity far beyond the country fueled by a sense of victory over Western forces.

The fear is of “a consolidation of power of all the terrorist groups [under] the umbrella of Taliban and the space that the Taliban is providing for them,” Nadery said.

“The slogan now of every single terrorist group with the jihadist mind is ‘now that we have defeated the United States and its 42 allies in Afghanistan, we can go after them anywhere’,” Nadery added. “That slogan is a clear danger that will enable groups like the Daesh (ISIS), Al Qaeda and others to rally more people, because they’re on the march, they feel triumphant.”

“Members of the Taliban told us in our face that they have defeated the United States and the NATO allies,” he continued. “And that’s not going to be an easy slogan for them to give up, it will be a danger to any disenchanted young in the region and in a broader global arena, where they will join forces around that slogan, and this is not an easy danger.”

International terrorism spawning from a war-torn state is all too familiar. Al Qaeda grew in the 1990s as the group was provided a haven by Afghanistan’s Taliban government, providing a base to plan the September 11 attacks, which prompted the initial U.S. invasion of Afghanistan nearly 20 years ago.

The Taliban’s continued push for power across Afghanistan is also bolstered by the group’s recently gained international legitimacy, starting with the U.S.-Taliban peace deal and more recently its senior members’ visit to China that saw what appeared to be warming ties with Beijing.

“China, unfortunately, have given them [the Taliban] a red carpet just recently, those things need to be ended if we are to see a stable region,” Nadery said.

‘They’ve got to fight for themselves’

At the White House on Tuesday, President Joe Biden told reporters that he does not regret his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, despite shocking gains by the Taliban.

“Look, we spent over a trillion dollars over twenty years, we trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces,” Biden said.

“Afghan leaders have to come together,” the president added. “They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.”

In April, Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.

The Pentagon’s colossal task of removing servicemembers and equipment out of Afghanistan is nearly complete, with the U.S. military mission slated to end by Aug. 31.

Since the U.S. began its withdrawal from the war-torn country, the Taliban has made stunning battlefield advances despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military.

On Wednesday, the Taliban seized three provincial Afghan capitals as well as a local army headquarters in Kunduz, according to the Associated Press. Wednesday’s gains give the Taliban approximately two-thirds control of the nation.

What’s more, the Taliban swiftly seized five provincial Afghan capitals over the weekend, taking three in one day alone.

An Afghan special force member attends a military operation against the Taliban fighters in Kandak Anayat village of Kunduz city, Afghanistan, July 23, 2021.

Ajmal Kakar | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

At the Pentagon, spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that while the Biden administration plans to continue to provide air support, there was not much else the U.S. military could do.

“We will certainly support from the air, where and when feasible, but that’s no substitute for leadership on the ground, it’s no substitute for political leadership in Kabul, it’s no substitute for using the capabilities and capacity that we know they have,” Kirby said.

Kirby added that while the Pentagon is concerned to see such advances by the Taliban, the Afghan military must now leverage the years of training from U.S. and NATO coalition forces.

“They have an Air Force, the Taliban doesn’t. They have modern weaponry and organizational skills, the Taliban doesn’t. They have superior numbers to the Taliban,” Kirby said. “They have the advantages, and it’s really now their time to use those advantages.”

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks at press conference at the Pentagon January 28, 2021 in Arlington,Virginia.

Yasin Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

As the security situation in Afghanistan worsens, the State Department is looking at ways in which to downsize the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. There are approximately 600 U.S. troops protecting the embassy grounds.

“Obviously it is a challenging security environment and were we able, were we confident and were we comfortable having a larger staffing presence there we would,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday when asked about the reduction in staff in Kabul.

“We are evaluating the threat environment on a daily basis. The Embassy is in regular contact with Washington with the most senior people in this building, who in turn are in regular contact with our colleagues at the [National Security Council] in the White House,” Price added.

Amanda Macias contributed to this report from Washington.

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Biden says Afghans ‘should combat for themselves’ as Taliban advances

Biden says Afghans 'must fight for themselves' as Taliban advances

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy from the White House in Washington, U.S. July 19, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Tuesday he does not regret his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, a move that effectively ends America’s longest war.

“Look, we spent over a trillion dollars over twenty years, we trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces,” Biden told reporters at the White House.

“Afghan leaders have to come together,” Biden said. “They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.”

In April, Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.

The Pentagon’s massive task of removing servicemembers and equipment out of Afghanistan is nearly complete, with the U.S. military mission slated to end by Aug. 31.

As the U.S. withdrawals from Afghanistan, the Taliban has made stunning battlefield advances despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military. Over the weekend, the Taliban swiftly seized five provincial Afghan capitals, taking three in one day alone.

Afghans inspect damaged shops after fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Kunduz city, northern Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2021.

Abdullah Sahil | AP

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that while the Biden administration plans to continue to provide air support, there was not much else the U.S. military could do.

“We will certainly support from the air, where and when feasible, but that’s no substitute for leadership on the ground, it’s no substitute for political leadership in Kabul, it’s no substitute for using the capabilities and capacity that we know they have,” Kirby said.

Kirby added that while the Pentagon is concerned to see such advances by the Taliban, the Afghan military must now leverage the years of training from U.S. and NATO coalition forces.

“They have an Air Force, the Taliban doesn’t. They have modern weaponry and organizational skills, the Taliban doesn’t. They have superior numbers to the Taliban,” Kirby said. “They have the advantages, and it’s really now their time to use those advantages.”

As the security situation in Afghanistan worsens, the State Department is looking at ways in which to downsize the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

“Obviously it is a challenging security environment and were we able, were we confident and were we comfortable having a larger staffing presence there we would,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday when asked about the reduction in staff in Kabul.

“We are evaluating the threat environment on a daily basis. The Embassy is in regular contact with Washington with the most senior people in this building, who in turn are in regular contact with our colleagues at the [National Security Council] in the White House,” Price added.

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Taliban Seize Zaranj, an Afghanistan Provincial Capital, in a Symbolic Victory

Taliban Capture Zaranj, an Afghanistan Provincial Capital, in a Symbolic Victory

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban captured a regional hub city in western Afghanistan on Friday, officials said, the first provincial capital to fall to the insurgency since the Biden administration announced the full withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The successful takeover marks a significant milestone in the insurgents’ relentless march to increase their stranglehold on the Afghan government and retake power in the country. The Taliban have besieged a host of such cities for weeks, and the fall of Zaranj, the provincial capital of Nimruz Province on the Afghanistan-Iran border, is the Taliban’s first breakthrough. And it handed the insurgents another crucial international border crossing, the latest in its recent campaign to control road access in Afghanistan.

A regional administrative hub is now completely controlled by the Taliban, an attention-grabbing addition to their steady drumbeat of rural victories in recent months. It was a considerable setback for the government, which has had to contend with simultaneous attacks on capital cities that have stretched military resources desperately thin.

The collapse of Zaranj at the hands of the insurgents was confirmed Friday by Rohgul Khairzad, the deputy governor of Nimruz, and Hajji Baz Mohammad Naser, the head of the provincial council.

“All the people are hiding in their houses in fear of the Taliban,” said Khair-ul-Nisa Ghami, a member of the provincial council. “The situation is very worrying. People are scared,” she said, adding: “The Taliban captured the city without any fighting.”

The collapse of Zaranj, a city of 160,000 people, occurred on the same day that a senior government official was assassinated in Kabul, the capital. It also came as the insurgents pressed hard into other provincial cities, in a day of bleak news for the government.

Situated in the remote southwestern corner of the country, Zaranj has long been considered a lawless border town, acting as Afghanistan’s main hub for illegal migration, replete with an illicit economy focused on drug trafficking and fuel. For decades, a steady flow of Afghans displaced by conflict and poverty have flocked to the city’s smuggler-owned hotels in order to broker deals to cross into Iran.

“Nimruz is a place where business interests and criminal networks govern the province,” said Ashley Jackson, a researcher with the Overseas Development Institute, adding that a Taliban takeover that disrupted those business interests “would not have been possible.”

Taliban fighters faced little resistance in taking Zaranj, said Afghan officials who were not authorized to speak to the news media. They said a deal had been negotiated with the Taliban allowing the authorities in the city to flee across the border to Iran with their families.

The flight of provincial authorities began on Thursday night when the neighboring district of Kang fell, according to the officials. They said people had started looting local government offices and businesses in the city until around 2 p.m. Friday when the Taliban arrived.

Only the local office of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, put up a fight, but eventually surrendered, the officials said. One of the Taliban’s first acts after entering the city was to break into its prison, immediately filling Zaranj’s streets with liberated inmates, they added.

Later in the day, Afghan Air Force aircraft circled above the city, dropping strikes on the headquarters of the police and the border brigade, the officials said.

Mr. Naser, the provincial council head, said that the government had failed to send reinforcements to Zaranj, and that officials had decided to abandon the city in order to avoid casualties. He denied that a deal had been struck with the Taliban.

Since the Taliban began its military campaign in May, the city has buzzed with people looking to leave the country. In early July, around 450 pickup trucks carrying migrants snaked from Zaranj toward crossing points along the Iranian border each day — more than double the number of cars that made the trip in March, according to David Mansfield, a migration researcher with the Overseas Development Institute.

The seizure of Zaranj is a symbolically significant development in the Taliban’s campaign, as they have moved away from targeting rural districts to focus on attacking provincial capitals.

The 215th Corps of the Afghan National Army is responsible for security in both Zaranj and Lashkar Gah, the capital of neighboring Helmand Province, which has been under siege for several days. The 215th Corps’ leadership had shifted its focus to defending Lashkar Gah, leaving Zaranj vulnerable to capture.

The Taliban also took responsibility for the assassination on Friday of a senior government official in Kabul. Dawa Khan Meenapal, the head of the government’s media and information center, was gunned down in a targeted attack. Dozens of officials and civil society figures have been assassinated over the past year, though the Taliban have largely denied responsibility for those attacks.

The killing came days after a coordinated attack by the insurgent group on the residence of the acting defense minister that left eight people dead. That assault highlighted the Taliban’s ability to strike in the heart of the Afghan capital as they continue their sweeping military campaign.

In northern Afghanistan on Friday, the Taliban attacked another provincial capital, Sheberghan, from five directions, burning houses and wedding halls, and assaulting the police headquarters and the prison. There were numerous civilian casualties, said Halima Sadaf Karimi, a member of Parliament from Jowzjan Province, of which Sheberghan is the capital.

Fighting also continued around the major western city of Herat, in Kandahar city in the south and in other provincial capitals.

The government’s response to the insurgents’ recent victories has been piecemeal. Afghan forces have retaken some districts, but both the Afghan Air Force and its commando forces — which have been deployed to hold what territory remains as regular army and police units retreat, surrender or refuse to fight — are exhausted.

In the security forces’ stead, the government has once more looked to local militias to fill the gaps, a move reminiscent of the chaotic and ethnically divided civil war of the 1990s that many Afghans now fear will return.

In recent weeks, the U.S. military has increased airstrikes on Taliban positions around crucial cities in an effort to give Afghan forces on the ground time to regroup. The strikes alone do little to change the situation on the ground, but have slowed Taliban advances.

The United States is supposed to complete its withdrawal by Aug. 31, at which point the Biden administration has said its military operations will end. That would give the Afghan government mere weeks to reconstitute its security forces to defend the cities and territory still under its control.

At a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, Deborah Lyons, the special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Afghanistan, warned that without action, the country could descend “into a situation of catastrophe so serious that it would have few, if any, parallels in this century.”

Afghanistan, she said, had come to resemble the battlefields of Syria and Sarajevo, with the Taliban making a “strategic decision” to attack urban areas, causing hundreds of deaths among civilians in just the last few weeks. The fighting, she said, comes on top of a punishing drought that has left 18.5 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

She added: “As one Afghan put it to us recently, ‘We are no longer talking about preserving the progress and the rights we have gained, we are talking about mere survival.’”

Reporting was contributed by Christina Goldbaum, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Michael Schwirtz.

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As Taliban Seize Cities, U.S. Says Afghan Forces Should Fend for Themselves

As Taliban Capture Cities, U.S. Says Afghan Forces Must Fend for Themselves

“We’ve seen this movie before,” Mr. Austin told his boss, in a reference to the Obama-era withdrawal from Iraq, which was followed by the rise of the Islamic State. The United States ended up returning to Iraq and launching five years of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria to help Iraqi security forces beat back that insurgent group.

Mr. Biden has argued for pulling out of Afghanistan for years. In 2009, while serving as vice president, he argued for a minimal force, only to be overruled as Mr. Obama ordered a surge of forces, then a rapid drawdown.

But a dozen years later, as president, he made the decision to withdraw, one of the most significant decisions of his presidency so far. And despite the likelihood that the White House will confront terrible images of human suffering and loss in the coming weeks and months, Mr. Biden has vowed to press ahead regardless of the conditions on the ground.

Polls show that large numbers of Americans in both parties support leaving Afghanistan.

Mr. Biden, declaring that the United States had long ago accomplished its mission of denying terrorists a haven in Afghanistan, said in April that all American troops would leave the country by Sept. 11. That date has since been moved up to Aug. 31, giving the Pentagon — and Afghan forces — just over a month to slow the Taliban surge.

Administration and military officials have voiced conflicting views on whether the United States will continue airstrikes after Aug. 31 to prevent Afghan cities and the Afghan government, led by President Ashraf Ghani, from falling. But even if the airstrikes continue, they can only do so much; the bulk of the effort will have to come from Afghan forces on the ground.

In any event, Kunduz was never going to be the Afghan city that might prompt Mr. Biden to rethink his strategy, two U.S. officials said on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

His hand might be forced if Taliban forces are on the verge of overrunning Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, or even Kabul, where the United States maintains an embassy with some 4,000 people.

Helene Cooper and Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Thomas Gibbons-Neff from Kabul. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

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Taliban Take Second Afghan Metropolis in Two Days

Taliban Take Second Afghan City in Two Days

KABUL, Afghanistan – Another provincial capital, the second in two days, nearly fell in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, this one in the north of the country, where a Taliban offensive has encircled several cities since international forces began in May, to retire.

The capital Sheberghan in Jowzjan Province collapsed less than 24 hours after the Taliban took over a provincial capital in southwest Afghanistan.

“The whole city has collapsed,” said the deputy governor of Jowzjan, Abdul Qader Malia. “Nothing is left.” On Saturday afternoon, government troops were still controlling the airport and army headquarters outside Sheberghan.

However, much of the province bordering Turkmenistan is now under the control of the Taliban.

The Taliban’s victories – and the defeats of the Afghan government – come despite continued American air support and are the result of an insurgent strategy that has overwhelmed and exhausted the Afghan government forces.

Sheberghan’s fall comes after the Taliban captured around 200 of the 400 or so districts in Afghanistan in the past few months – often without firing a shot. They penetrate deep into the north of the country, even though the region has a reputation for being an anti-Taliban stronghold and relatively safe.

The insurgent offensive has turned into a brutal urban struggle as Taliban fighters advanced into cities like Sheberghan and Kunduz in the north, Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south, and Herat in the west, and tens of thousands of civilians amid a desperate struggle for control. Hundreds were killed or wounded and many more were displaced.

On Friday, government forces in Sheberghan reportedly repelled the Taliban incursion after insurgents entered the city and attempted to raid government buildings such as the police headquarters and the prison. The number of civilian victims is unclear.

“The situation in the city is so scary,” said Matin Raufi, a Sheberghan resident. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The Taliban returned on Saturday and penetrated deep into the city, despite desperate attempts by security forces to defend what was still theirs.

“The government troops have withdrawn to the army brigade and the airport, the two places that are still under their control, to regroup and plan counter-attacks against the Taliban,” said Mohammad Karim Jawzjani, member of parliament from Jowzjan.

Sheberghan is the hometown of Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious warlord and former Afghan vice president who survived the last 40 years of war by cutting back and changing sides. It was long expected that Marshal Dostum would muster the same Uzbek militias that fought in the country’s civil war in the 1990s and helped overthrow the Taliban after the 2001 US invasion to serve as a bulwark against the group’s recent boom .

The Sheberghan case is evidence that, despite the resurgence of these militias – which the Afghan government advocates as a complement to its troops – these militias are currently unreliable when it comes to fighting the Taliban.

Marshal Dostum returned to Afghanistan in the past few days after weeks in Turkey – where he is resident and has close ties – to recover from health problems. The aging warlord has left much of his frontline duties to his son Yar Mohammad Dostum, who leads the fight against the Taliban on social media.

On Saturday, Marshal Dostum met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the capital, Kabul, where Marshal Dostum pledged his continued support to the government’s security forces, according to a palace statement.

The warlord’s militias are only part of a kaleidoscope of armed groups that are regaining importance as American forces aim to complete their retreat by the end of August and the Afghan government tries to hold onto territory. The return of the militia is a terrifying throwback to the 1990s, when an ethnically charged civil war helped create the Taliban after the same armed groups brutalized civilians.

The fall of Sheberghan means the Taliban can now move their troops elsewhere, most likely to other besieged cities in the north. The same situation is playing out in southwest Afghanistan, where the insurgents captured Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province, on Friday.

“Sheberghan and Zaranj can hardly be called cities given their small size, and although these are propaganda victories, the Taliban are still fighting to take the larger cities like Herat and Kandahar,” said Ibraheem Bahiss, an adviser to the International Crisis Group and a independent research analyst. “In these places they encounter considerable resistance and make sacrifices.”

Zaranj, known for its poor governance, lawlessness and illegal economy, will no doubt serve as the starting point for future Taliban operations in the west and south. This is especially true of the capital of neighboring Helmand Province, Lashkar Gah, which is dangerously close to collapse. Fierce fighting in recent days has left parts of the city to rubble and civilians killed.

This leaves the Afghan government few options in both provinces: counterattack and try to recapture the lost territory or relocate troops to another location to defend other besieged cities.

American air support, which is slated to last until the end of the month – or longer if the Pentagon gets permission to continue – is being launched from outside the country, meaning there are insufficient resources to defend every Afghan city attacked .

Categories
World News

U.S. Airstrikes Attempt to Gradual Taliban Advance in Afghanistan

U.S. Airstrikes Try to Slow Taliban Advance in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S. military aircraft struck a number of Taliban positions this week in support of faltering Afghan government forces, in one of the first significant American reactions to the insurgents’ blistering advance across Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw.

At least one of the strikes was against Taliban positions in the key southern city of Kandahar, slowing an advance that threatened to take over the city. Others were in the neighboring province of Helmand, according to a strongly worded Taliban statement.

The Taliban’s harsh language — it called the strikes “disobedience” to last year’s withdrawal agreement with the Americans, and it warned of unspecified “consequences” — was an indication that the airstrikes had an impact on the insurgent group.

The scale and pace of the Taliban advance has provoked alarm among top U.S. military and civilian officials in recent days. The Taliban now threaten most of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and even Kabul, the national capital. The group has overrun more than half of the country’s 400-odd districts, in many cases seizing them without a fight, since it began its offensive in earnest in May.

This week’s airstrikes, which took place Wednesday and Thursday, appear to be an indication of that U.S. concern and of lingering American involvement in the country despite a nearly completed pullout of U.S. forces after almost 20 years of war. The United States and other major powers are pushing for a peace deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but the Taliban believe they are winning the war, leaving little incentive to negotiate.

“We do have deep concerns about the actions the Taliban is taking, indicating that it may be trying to take the country by force,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Friday on MSNBC. “But were that to happen, Afghanistan would be a pariah state.”

On Wednesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, warned of the possibility of a “complete Taliban takeover,” saying the insurgents now had the “strategic momentum” in the fight against Afghan government forces.

Pentagon officials confirmed the recent American strikes but were tight-lipped about specifics. They have been similarly ambiguous for weeks about the scale and scope of continued American military involvement in Afghanistan’s war, though they indicated earlier this month that it could continue at least until the withdrawal was completed at the end of August.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said this week that American forces had equipped a base in Qatar “to be able to conduct over-the-horizon strikes” in Afghanistan.

As the U.S. pullout accelerated and Bagram Air Base was handed over to the Afghans, American officials suggested that U.S. air power would be employed against the Taliban in limited circumstances, at least through Aug. 31.

But they did not specify what those circumstances would be. This week’s strikes are a sign that the near-collapse of Afghan forces in the last month has caught the attention of official Washington.

The United States no longer has aircraft stationed in Afghanistan. The planes deployed this week would have been based in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East.

“In the last several days, we have acted through airstrikes to support the ANDSF but, I won’t get into tactical details of those strikes,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a briefing Thursday, referring to the Afghan forces by their acronym.

He noted Mr. Austin’s statement about the ability to conduct such strikes, adding, “General McKenzie has those authorities,” referring to the head of the Pentagon’s Central Command, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie.

A senior Afghan official in Kandahar, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the American strikes had “boosted the morale of our security forces.” He added that “we are hoping these airstrikes will help to push the Taliban away from the city of Kandahar.”

A B-52 long-range bomber was spotted over Kabul in recent days, for the first time in some years. The plane’s massive size and distinctive silhouette were likely intended as a show of force. The bombers have been moved to Qatar to cover the withdrawal of U.S. and international forces.

Several Pentagon officials confirmed that additional bombing raids around Kandahar are likely in coming days. “We’ve been doing it where and when feasible, and we’ll keep doing it where and when feasible,” one official said, speaking anonymously to describe operational planning.

Even as their military advance continues almost unchecked — though government forces claim to have taken back a handful of districts — the Taliban have become increasingly emboldened. They left top Afghan government officials empty-handed after a peace meeting in Doha, Qatar, last weekend, not even agreeing to the traditional cease-fire over the Eid holiday.

On Tuesday rockets were fired at the presidential palace in Kabul as officials were gathered for Eid prayers, though the attack was later claimed by a branch of Islamic State.

Adam Nossiter reported from Kabul, and Eric Schmitt from Washington, D.C. Taimoor Shah and Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting.

Categories
Politics

U.S. launched in a single day airstrikes on the Taliban to assist Afghan forces

U.S. launched overnight airstrikes on the Taliban to support Afghan forces

US Marines from Charlie 1/1 of the 15th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) fill sandbags around their light mortar position at the front of a US Marine Corps base, near a cardboard sign reminding everyone that Taliban troops are everywhere and anywhere in the south could be Afghanistan December 1, 2001.

Jim Hollander | Reuters

WASHINGTON – The United States launched overnight air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan, a move reflecting Washington’s intentions to continue to provide fighter jets to the Afghan forces until the US forces withdraw next month.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby refused to provide any further details about the attacks on Thursday, including the type of aircraft used.

The attacks are the first to become known since Army General Scott Miller, America’s last four-star commander to serve in Afghanistan, stepped down and returned to the United States.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (left) and Joint Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley greet Gen. Austin S. Miller, former U.S. Supreme Commander in Afghanistan, upon his return to Andrews Air Force Base, July 14, 2021.

Alex Brandon | Reuters

In April, President Joe Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 US soldiers from Afghanistan by September 11, effectively ending America’s longest war. Last week, Biden gave an updated schedule, saying the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31st.

“We didn’t go to Afghanistan to build a nation,” said Biden. “It is up to the Afghans to decide the future of their country.”

At the Pentagon, the country’s top military officer told reporters on Wednesday that the US has completed more than 95% of the Herculean task of withdrawing from Afghanistan.

“The sheer volume of movement on this operation was exceptional,” said General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of the US Army, adding that the US had carried out more than 980 air transports of cargo in less than three months.

“In addition, all military bases outside of Kabul were completely handed over to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan security forces.”

Last week the White House announced it would begin evacuation flights this month for Afghan nationals and their families who supported U.S. and NATO coalition forces during the longest American war.