Thousands of civilians flee homes in Afghanistan as Taliban advance

·

Press TV
August 10, 2021

Ongoing offensives by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan have forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes across the country.

The Taliban on Tuesday captured Farah City in western Afghanistan, the seventh provincial capital to fall to them since Friday.

“This afternoon, the Taliban entered the city of Farah after briefly fighting with the security forces. They have captured the governor’s office and police headquarters,” Shahla Abubar, a member of Farah’s provincial council, said.

Tens of thousands of people also fled their homes in the north for the relative safety of Kabul and other urban centers as the militants focused on the major city of Mazar-i-Sharif, whose collapse would give the Taliban total control over northern Afghanistan.

The Taliban earlier claimed they were closing in on Mazar-i-Sharif after capturing Sheberghan to its west, and Kunduz and Taloqan to its east. But Fawad Aman, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said Afghan government forces had the upper hand there.

The Indian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, however, called on its nationals to board a “special flight” scheduled for later in the day.

In the northern city of Kunduz, which was captured by the Taliban over the weekend, residents said the militant focused their attention on government forces who had retreated to the airport. Witnesses and local residents living close to the airport reported days of heavy fighting in the area.

In another development, the Afghan forces in Pul-e Khumri, the capital of Baghlan Province, were also surrounded as Taliban closed in on the town at a main junction on the road to Kabul.

Following the capture of Aibak, the capital city of the north-central province of Samangan, on Monday, the Taliban militants have now captured seven out of the 34 provincial capitals in Afghanistan in less than a week. They are now battling the government for control of the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

To contain Taliban advances, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and a group of political leaders on Tuesday agreed to form a joint command center to mobilize regional militias and public uprising forces against the militants. The presidential palace said the center would oversee rapid equipment and mobilization of the forces in various part of Afghanistan. The command center will have key political leaders as its members.

Ghani has also appealed to civilians to defend the country’s “democratic fabric.”

Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) said on Tuesday that it sought to prevent Afghanistan from slipping into a state of civil war, becoming an even bigger producer of drugs or a source for a “massive flow of migration.”

The United States has been withdrawing foreign forces from Afghanistan in a hasty plan that was devised after two decades of war and occupation. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it was down to the Afghan government and its forces to turn the tide, and there was “not much” the United States could do to help.

In a last-ditch effort, Washington’s special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was, however, in Qatar to try and convince the Taliban to accept a ceasefire. The State Department said he “will press the Taliban to stop their military offensive” and to “help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating situation.”

Fighting between the Taliban militants and Afghan government forces has significantly soared since May, when the US-led military coalition started the troop withdrawal.

Tortured By The Taliban: A Soldier’s Story

·

Afghan commando Hasibullah Faizi was captured by Taliban militants when his helicopter was shot down in 2016. He has given RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi a horrific account of brutal torture that has left him praying for his own death.

My country is in chaos, we want peace: Rashid Khan appeals as violence escalates in Afghanistan

·

Rashid Khan

Indian Express: “Dear World Leaders! My country is in chaos,thousand of innocent people, including children & women, get martyred everyday, houses & properties being destructed.Thousand families displaced. Don’t leave us in chaos. Stop killing Afghans & destroying Afghaniatan. We want peace,” wrote Rashid. Click here to read more (external link).

Red Cross Treats 4,000 Afghans Wounded by War in August

·

Ayaz Gul
VOA News
August 10, 2021

ISLAMABAD – The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday its health facilities in Afghanistan have treated more than 4,000 patients wounded by weapons over the past week, an indication of the intensity of the recent Afghan conflict

The violence comes as the United States along with regional and international stakeholders have gathered in Doha, Qatar, to press the Afghan parties to the conflict to urgently seek a negotiated settlement to the South Asian country’s long war.

An ICRC statement called on both Afghan government forces and Taliban insurgents for immediate restraint, stressing that civilians and vital infrastructure such as hospitals must be protected from fighting.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk as fighting intensifies in and around Kunduz, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar, and other Afghan contested cities, it added.

“Street-to-street clashes in Kunduz, Lashkar Gah and other cities over the last few days have injured hundreds of civilians even as medical services are heavily strained due to damage to health facilities and a lack of staff,” the ICRC said.

Several cities have no electricity, and water supply systems are barely operational in some places.

“We are seeing homes destroyed, medical staff and patients put at tremendous risk, and hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure damage,” said Eloi Fillion, ICRC’s head of delegation in Afghanistan.

Fillion said the use of explosive weapons, such as grenades, rockets, mortars and bombs, in cities is having an indiscriminate impact on the population.

“Many families have no option but to flee in search of a safer place,” he said. “This must stop.”

In July alone, the ICRC said it had helped nearly 13,000 patients suffering from “weapon-related injuries” across Afghanistan.

The international aid agency noted the number appears likely to rise in August as fighting increases in highly populated areas.

The violence comes as regional and international stakeholders Tuesday gathered in Qatar to collectively press representatives of the Afghan parties to the conflict to resume peace talks and urgently reach a political settlement to bring an end to the bloodshed.

Washington said Monday that U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, in several planned rounds of meetings this week starting Tuesday in the Qatari capital, Doha, will “help formulate a joint international response to the rapidly deteriorating” situation in Afghanistan.

The U.S. State Department said Khalilzad “will 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 Taliban have captured several cities in the last week and threaten many more, raising the prospects for the Islamist group to regain power in Afghanistan.

Washington and representatives of other countries attending the Afghan peace-related meetings in Doha will renew their pledge not to recognize a government in Kabul imposed by force, according to the U.S. statement.

The United Nations warned last month that the Afghan war, in the first six months of this year, showed an almost 50% rise in civilian casualties compared with 2020.

India shuts last consulate in Afghanistan and evacuates citizens

·

Ariana: India sent a military plane to northern Afghanistan on Tuesday to pull out its citizens, officials said, as fighting raged between Afghan security forces and the advancing Taliban. The Indian government shut its consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, the biggest city in the north, and urged its diplomats and Indian citizens to take the special flight home, Reuters reported. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan: 278 New Cases of COVID-19, 17 Deaths Reported

·

Tolo News: The Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday reported 278 new positive cases of COVID-19 out of 3,367 samples tested in the last 24 hours. The ministry also reported 17 deaths and 357 recoveries from COVID-19 in the same period. The Ministry of Public Health stated that the number of COVID-19 cases is descending, saying over 1.8 million people have been vaccinated against the virus. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghan City in Panic After News of Taliban Advance

·

Mazar-e Sharif

Ayesha Tanzeem
VOA News
August 10, 2021

KABUL – With seven family members to feed, Abdul Khaliq needed the money. But Monday morning, his small fruit cart in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan remained devoid of customers.

“There is no business. There is fighting. … I am here since the morning, but I can’t make any money. People have nothing,” he told VOA.

Business in the capital of Balkh province came to a standstill, and shops started shutting down after news spread that the Taliban were advancing. The militants had already captured five provincial capitals in the north or northeast of the country since Friday. Monday morning, pro-Taliban social media accounts began saying the militants had attacked Mazar from four sides.

The claim was false — the only fighting reported was some 20 kilometers from the city near an army base in Dihdadi District — but the rumor traveled fast. For the population of Mazar, which had heard about the collapse of five nearby provincial capitals within two days, 20 kilometers was not far enough.

“We hear the Taliban are coming into Mazar city. … People are escaping. Fifty percent of the shops are closed, although the Taliban are still on the outskirts. But people are scared,” Mazar resident Hamid Askar said.

Worsening the panic were scenes from a day ago that went viral on social media. Kunduz, another city in the north only a few hours’ drive from Mazar, saw heavy fighting and was largely taken over by the Taliban.

Videos showed people running as plumes of black smoke rose in the air behind them. Tall orange and red flames were consuming parts of the city.

Mazar residents did not want to take a chance. Central Mazar’s busy streets became deserted. People lined up in banks and at ATM machines to withdraw money.

It did not help that another northern capital, Aibak of Samangan province, was overrun by the Taliban the same day — the sixth provincial capital to collapse since Friday. The militants now control most of the north.

In a country that has been at war for four decades, Mazar was one of the cities left relatively intact. It did not see heavy street-to-street fighting. This time, the residents seemed to be planning for a different outcome.

“The Taliban are coming. The city is collapsing. Anyone with money has escaped. The poor are left behind,” said shopkeeper Najibullah, who has only one name.

Witnesses said that during the panic in Mazar, they saw few security forces. Anyone who could afford it tried to escape. Travel agents had double the business they have on a normal day. Even airlines doubled their flights.

“Usually, we have two to three flights daily from Mazar to Kabul, but it has increased to five to six,” travel agent Sameer said. “Previously, the ticket was $85 one way, but now it has increased to $113.”

He said his office has seen a rush of people trying to get to safe locations ever since the security situation deteriorated in the neighborhood.

In the afternoon, the Afghan military released a video on social media saying it had repulsed the Taliban attack on Dihdadi District.

“Now, the presence of commandos in Kod-Barq area of Dehdadi district, #Balkh province. The terrorists attack on district repulsed; dozens #terrorists were killed and wounded in reciprocal operation of #commandos and Public Resistance Forces,” tweeted Defense Ministry spokesman Fawad Aman.

He later wrote that the Taliban had also been pushed back in northern Baghlan province.

The Taliban have made swift territorial gains in Afghanistan since May when the foreign forces started their withdrawal. President Joe Biden had received stiff criticism from political opponents and independent analysts for his decision to withdraw all forces before the Taliban made a political settlement with the Afghan government.

Negotiations between the two sides officially began in September 2020 but have so far remained fruitless.

The violence has exacerbated the already existing humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. The country has had a severe drought for several years, and according to the United Nations, more than 18 million people, which make up half the country’s population, are now in need of humanitarian assistance.

Related

Battle Between Taliban, Afghan Government Now Seeing Return of Warlords

·

Jamie Dettmer
VOA News
August 9, 2021

The beleaguered Afghan government is having to turn to veteran warlords to try to fend off the Taliban as international forces withdraw from the country.

The warlords return to playing a major military role is a key part of President Ashraf Ghani’s national mobilization plan to halt the Taliban’s nationwide offensive but is raising fears that at best it will lead to Afghanistan splintering once again into dueling local fiefdoms, setting the stage for a prolonged and messy civil war, mirroring what unfolded in the 1990s after the Soviet withdrawal.

A former top British army commander General Richard Barrons, told the BBC Monday he fears the country will be plunged into a decades-long civil war and dubbed the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan a “strategic mistake.” “I don’t believe it’s in our own interest,” he said.

Abdul Rashid Dostum is among the old warlords returning to the fray as the Taliban gains more territory. More than a dozen cities are now under siege by the Taliban, including several provincial capitals.

The lightning offensive by the Taliban has rocked the Afghan government and unfolded in the wake of the decision by the Biden administration to withdraw U.S. troops from the country. Almost all NATO troops will be gone by September.

In Herat, the scene of heavy fighting, the defense of the city is being overseen by another veteran warlord, 70-year-old Mohammed Ismail Khan, a former mujahedeen leader against the Russians and the Taliban. His forces are estimated to comprise of 6,000 volunteers, some veterans from the civil war in the 1990s, according to Western military officials.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who long vowed to clean out warlords, met with Dostum last week on his return to Afghanistan from Turkey, where the former army paratrooper and onetime U.S. ally was reported to be undergoing medical treatment.

Dostum is a former Afghan vice-president but currently holds no official government position. He was a key figure in the fight against the Taliban in the 1990s and has long been seen as one of Afghanistan’s most powerful but notorious warlords. His militia was accused by rights groups in the 1990s of rapes and massacres of prisoners.

Some Afghan experts are doubtful that the support of veteran warlords and their newly formed and revived militias will be sufficient to fend off the Taliban, unless the demoralized Afghan army pulls its weight more.

Among the doubters is Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Non-state Armed Actors at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. She noted in a tweet Sunday that the Taliban has been notching up successes in areas where there are strong anti-Taliban militias which have been embraced by the Afghan government.

With Afghan soldiers and weapons in short supply, though, Western diplomats and analysts say the Afghan president has little option but to call for help from the veteran warlords he’s tried to keep at arm’s length in the past.  They add that political factions, regional bosses and powerbrokers will start growing their militias even without the encouragement of the central government.

“As Taliban victories on the battlefield grow, all other factions will ramp up their efforts to build militias and create an opposing force to defeat them,” predict Annie Pforzheimer, a former acting deputy assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan, and Nilofar Sakhi, who has been involved in the Afghan peace process since 2010.

In a commentary for the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, they said: “Expect regional powers to arm and supply money to their preferred factions and for the militias to keep switching sides and loyalties for gains that will further weaken the Afghan central government.”

Romain Malejacq, author of the book “Warlord Survival: The Delusion of State Building in Afghanistan,” foresees a similar outcome. “Whether the central government manages to hold its own and resist the Taliban or not, post-NATO Afghanistan is likely to feature a patchwork of overlapping, competing, political orders between the state, the Taliban, the warlords and other non-state armed actors — something resembling Afghanistan of the 1990s,” he wrote in paper for the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch international affairs think tank.

Related