The Taliban didn’t wait for the end of the movie President Donald Trump began directing a year and a half ago. Last week they clicked on fast forward and advanced quickly toward Kabul, the capital, shoving Washington into a struggle to avoid a remake of the scene in 1979 when Iranian Islamic revolutionaries captured the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
Helicopters land at US Embassy; group has swept through the country, regaining control of wide swaths within days; American officials burn sensitive documents
Taliban fighters entered the outskirts of Kabul on Sunday while panicked workers fled government offices and helicopters landed at the US Embassy in the Afghan capital as the militants further tightened their grip on the country.
Militants are not known to have pilots or technical personnel needed to fly aircraft; Russian choppers also seen in footage; not clear if any of the helicopters are airworthy
The Taliban have released footage showing captured US-made Afghan military helicopters at Kandahar airport, until recently one of the most important US bases in the country.
Interior minister says transfer will be ‘peaceful’; Afghan troops surrender at Bagram air base; American University employees burn documents to prevent identification of students
The Taliban was poised to take control of Afghanistan on Sunday as fighters entered the outskirts of Kabul and said they were awaiting a “peaceful transfer” of the city after promising not to take the capital by force.
Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as Taliban militants entered the capital city of Kabul.
Ghani flew to neighboring Tajikistan, a senior Afghan Interior Ministry official told Reuters. However, the Afghan president’s office said it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons.”
“That’s it. It’s over,” a U.S. official told Fox News regarding the withdrawal.
“The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation. God should hold him accountable,” Abdullah Abdullah, head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, said in a video posted online. The council was tasked by Ghani with handling government negotiations with the Taliban.
Acting Interior Minister Abdul Satar Mirzakwal said security forces would be deployed in Kabul to ensure order, in comments translated by the Washington Post.
“There is an agreement that there will be a transitional administration for orderly transfer of power,” Mirzakwal said.
There were no reports of fighting in the capital, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters. However, armed Taliban militants were seen in the streets of Kabul and in Afghan security vehicles, NBC News correspondent Richard Engel wrote on Twitter.
“We want to enter Kabul with peace, and talks” with the Afghan government “are underway” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is taking steps to evacuate remaining Embassy staff and other personnel, in comments to ABC’s This Week. “This is manifestly not Saigon,” Blinken insisted, referring to the evacuation from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam in 1975.
The Taliban offensive that began in May accelerated as militants took over a number of provincial capitals in Afghanistan over the past week.
“There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan,” President Biden said on July 8. “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
The Taliban have moved closer to retaking full control of Afghanistan, with the capital Kabul now the only major city left in government hands.
On Sunday the militants took control of Jalalabad, a key eastern city, without a fight.
It means they now control all roads to neighbouring Pakistan.
It’s been years since Haji and his wife have had a good night’s sleep.
“All night, my wife wakes up,” says Haji. “She’s scared. If [she hears] somebody is coming, she calls me, ‘Haji, someone is coming!'”
His wife says the first thing she does is hide the children.
The centers of Logar, Paktika, Kunar and Paktia provinces and 10 districts fell to the Taliban in the last 24 hours, according to sources as the group’s advances continue.
Sources said the Taliban has released all prisoners in these provinces while local officials have relocated to the army bases in the four provincial capitals.
The situation in Afghanistan—and with it the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship—is likely to worsen in the short term. The prospect of a prolonged civil war or full Taliban takeover now looms large as hopes of a negotiated settlement recede. Whatever the outcome, the countries’ bilateral relationship will continue to be shaped by tensions that have characterized it for more than a century. This report examines these sources of tension and identifies potential openings for engagement that could, over time, become sources of stability and growth.
No matter where the conflict goes from here, Afghans will bear enormous costs as stability looks to be a distant prospect.
The Afghan government has had its most difficult week fighting the Taliban since the insurgency began. As of this writing, 12 provincial capitals have fallen since last Friday, marking the first time the Taliban have controlled a city since they were ousted in 2001. By some estimates the Taliban control two-thirds of the country. While many experts predicted that the rapid and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops would increase Taliban control, few saw it happening this fast. A Taliban takeover of Kabul — once thought to be years away if at all — is now conceivable within months, or even a matter of weeks.