South East Asia

The Panjshir Valley north of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul is the final major centre of resistance to the Taliban, but analysts say the fighters gathered there will struggle if the Islamist hardliners launch a full-scale attack.

Surrounded by the high peaks of the Hindu Kush north of Kabul, the Panjshir has long had a reputation as a bastion of resistance — legendary military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud successfully defended it during the Soviet-Afghan War and the civil war with the Taliban up to his death in 2001.

With desperate Afghans clinging to departing American airplanes, the fall of Afghanistan is being compared to the American evacuation of Saigon in 1975. The Taliban takeover may also preview how President Joe Biden would handle a military confrontation with China, perhaps over Taiwan.

As vice president, Biden got control of China policy through the work of longtime Democrat activist Thomas Donilon. Despite a questionable record as a lobbyist with Fannie Mae, then President Obama picked Donilon for national security adviser, which even troubled leftist writers such as Robert Scheer of Truthdig.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is concerned about the prevailing humanitarian needs within Afghanistan, and urges support to ensure that all those requiring assistance “are not forgotten.”

The situation on the ground across the country remains extremely fluid. While widespread fighting has decreased since the takeover of the country by the Taliban on Sunday, the full impact of the evolving situation is not yet clear. Many Afghans are extremely anxious about what the future holds, the report notes.

Who are the Taliban? We still see this question floating around a fair amount on social media and online. People also tend to confuse them with al-Qaeda. Now that the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan at a lightning pace over the last two weeks they claim to have been “reformed.”

Hallelujah! Can I get an “Amen!”

Yeah. Right.

In early July, as the Pentagon was accelerating the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, U.S. counterterror analysts circulated a confidential report highlighting a worrisome development thousands of miles away.

The Taliban’s media-savvy spokespersons send deceptive signals that appear socially and politically acceptable, while the organisation continues to pursue their military, ideological objective on the ground

As the Taliban take over Kabul for the second time in three decades, many questions are waiting to be answered. One that has occupied important editorial spaces across the world is that of the Taliban makeover — “has the Taliban really changed?” This is a hugely important question as the answer to this would have implications for tens of thousands of Afghans, especially women. Many voices including within the Taliban claim it has learnt from its mistakes and is now more pragmatic and less extremist.

Al-Qaeda has not been eliminated from the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) region, and the group still enjoys significant support in the broader regional jihadist landscape.

To counter the aggressive U.S. counterterrorism campaign, al-Qaeda altered its organizational structure and strategy in AfPak, strengthening its roots in the region to ensure its survival.

The collapse of the US’s position in Afghanistan has limited read-across to its relations with its NATO and Asian allies. But it is a stark reminder of the constraints on the UK as a global power.

This is a desperate time for the people of Afghanistan, as they await their fate under Taliban rule. While too much international aid has been wasted and embezzled, enough still got through to provide substantial improvements in health, education and economic opportunities for millions of Afghans, including many women and girls. All this is now at risk.

There are several reasons for the collapse of the Afghan army, but a duplicitous US negotiation with the Taliban was the most potent, and the insurgents exploited the uncertainty brilliantly.

President Joe Biden’s claim that the Afghan army ‘did not have the resolve’ to fight for its own country would seem to be true following its disintegration. But it is as much a misrepresentation of the truth as US and UK ministerial claims in recent days that the collapse came as a complete surprise.

Protests against Taliban rule in Afghanistan spread to several cities ahead of the first Friday prayers since the militant group took control last Sunday. In Kabul, around 200 people gathered at one protest on Thursday, the country’s independence day, before Taliban fighters dispersed them violently. Several people were killed in Asadabad after the Taliban fired on a crowd waving Afghan flags, and the group announced a curfew in Khost after demonstrations there.