India will evacuate its diplomats from its consulate in Mazar E Sharif, Afghanistan, as well as nationals in the area as 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”.
Fighting in Afghanistan’s long-running conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when the US-led military coalition began the final stage of a withdrawal set to be completed before the end of the month. That timetable means the withdrawal would be finished ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The US-led invasion sparked by 9/11 toppled the first Taliban regime in 2001.
The militants’ sweep comes despite condemnations by the international community and the Taliban’s refusal to return to the negotiating table.
Taliban’s next target
The insurgents now have their eyes on Mazar-i-Sharif, the biggest city in the north, whose fall would signal the total collapse of government control in a region that has traditionally been anti-Taliban. Government forces are also battling the hardline Islamists in Kandahar and Helmand, the southern Pashto-speaking provinces from where the Taliban draw their strength.
Families flee
The Taliban have appeared largely indifferent to peace overtures, and seem intent on a military victory to crown a return to power after their ouster 20 years ago in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
As fighting raged, tens of thousands of people were on the move inside the country, with families fleeing newly captured Taliban cities with tales of brutal treatment at the hands of the insurgents.
In the northern city of Kunduz that was captured by the Taliban over the weekend, residents said shops had begun to reopen in the centre as insurgents focused their attention on government forces who had retreated to the airport.
Biden unmoved
The Taliban are making swift gains in Afghanistan but President Joe Biden is standing firm on a US exit with limited options appearing to be on the table to reverse the insurgents’ momentum.
The Taliban’s advances, including seizing six provincial capitals within days, may appear startling in their speed but were not unexpected in Washington as the US military completes the pullout ordered by Biden by August 31.
“The decision to withdraw was made in full knowledge that what we are seeing happen now was likely to happen,” said Laurel Miller, until 2017 the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
For Biden, who long championed ending America’s longest-ever war, there is a cold calculation — nothing more could be achieved and the United States long ago accomplished its stated goal of defeating Al-Qaeda in the region following the September 11, 2001 attacks, though the Taliban have yet to cut their ties with the group.
warning for taliban
A U.S. peace envoy was back in the Middle East on Tuesday to warn the Taliban not to pursue a military victory on the ground and deliver a blunt message: A Taliban government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan will not be recognized.
The U.S. State Department said Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, was in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, to “help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.”
Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, would “press the Taliban to stop their military offensive and to negotiate a political settlement, which is the only path to stability and development in Afghanistan,” the State Department said.
taliban’s audio message
Taliban military chief released an audio message to his fighters on Tuesday, ordering them not to harm Afghan forces and government officials in territories they conquer. The recording was shared on Twitter by the Taliban spokesman in Doha, Mohammad Naim.
In the nearly five-minute audio, Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, also tells the insurgents to stay out of abandoned homes of government and security officials who have fled, leave marketplaces open and protect places of business, including banks.
It was not immediately clear if Taliban fighters on the ground would heed Yaqoob’s instructions. There have been reports by civilians who have fled Taliban advances of heavy-handed treatment by the insurgents — schools being burned down and repressive restrictions on women.
There have also been reports of revenge killings in areas where the Taliban have gained control. The insurgents have also claimed responsibility for killing a comedian in southern Kandahar, assassinating the government’s media chief Kabul and a bombing that targeted acting Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, killing eight and wounding more. The minister was not harmed in the attack.
The intensifying war has also increased the number of civilian casualties.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that its staff has treated more than 4,000 Afghans this month in their 15 facilities across the country, including in Helmand and Kandahar, where Afghan and U.S. airstrikes are trying to rein in the Taliban onslaught.
“We are seeing homes destroyed, medical staff and patients put at tremendous risk, and hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure damaged,” Eloi Fillion, ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
“The use of explosive weaponry in cities is having an indiscriminate impact on the population,” Fillion added. “Many families have no option but to flee in search of a safer place. This must stop.”
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