Afghan Women Forced from Banking Jobs as Taliban Take Control

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Reuters: In early July, as Taliban insurgents were seizing territory from government forces across Afghanistan, fighters from the group walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave. The gunmen escorted them to their homes and told them not to return to their jobs. Instead, they explained that male relatives could take their place, according to three of the women involved and the bank’s manager. Click here to read more (external link).

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Iran Expresses Concern, West Draws Down Embassy Staff Over Taliban Advances In Afghanistan

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 13, 2021

Iran is calling on the Taliban to ensure the safety of its diplomats and staff at its consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat, as Western embassies and aid groups are evacuating staff from Afghanistan.

The Taliban has seized Kandahar; the country’s second-biggest city, Herat; and a string of other Afghan provincial capitals in recent days as international forces withdraw from the country after a two-decade presence, raising fears of the collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul.

“The Islamic republic is concerned over the escalating violence in Afghanistan, and in light of the Taliban taking control of Herat, calls for guarantees of complete safety for its diplomatic missions and the lives of its staff,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh tweeted on August 13.

Khatibzadeh said the ministry was “in contact” with its staff in the city, which lies just 115 kilometers from the Iranian border.

Shi’ite-dominated Iran, which has long been wary of the Sunni Muslim Taliban, has closed its consulates in Herat and the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif over security fears.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s West Asia chief, Rusoul Mosavi, said staff in Herat were inside the mission and that “the forces that now control the city gave guarantees of full protection for the consulate, diplomats, and other staff,” the official IRNA news agency reported.

In 1998, when Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban, its militants killed at least eight Iranian diplomats and an Iranian journalist at the consulate in Mazar-e Sharif in an incident that nearly triggered an Iranian military intervention.

As the Taliban’s rapid advance sent shock waves through the international community, the Taliban said in a statement that “diplomats and staff of embassies, consulates, and institutions, whether foreign or domestic, will not only be safe from the Islamic emirate, but will also be provided with an atmosphere of security and trust.”

The U.S. military said it would send about 3,000 extra troops within 48 hours to help evacuate U.S. Embassy staff, while Britain said it would deploy around 600 troops to help its citizens leave.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s Embassy in Kabul is closing temporarily, and Danish television quoted Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod as saying that staff were being evacuated.

“We have decided to temporarily close our embassy in Kabul,” Kofod told journalists, adding that the evacuation would be closely coordinated with Norway, with which it shares a compound.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Soreide said it would also shut its embassy and evacuate Norwegian diplomats, local employees, and their close relatives.

Sigrid Kaag, foreign minister of the Netherlands, said it would keep its embassy open as long as possible, but a ministry spokesman confirmed a drawdown was under way.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Berlin was reducing its embassy staff to “the operationally necessary, absolute minimum,” and that a “crisis support team” was being sent immediately to the Afghan capital to increase security at the diplomatic mission.

Planned charter flights would be brought forward to fly diplomats and local staff working for the embassy out of the country, Maas told reporters.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Republican lawmakers condemn Biden over Afghanistan situation

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Joe Biden

Press TV
August 13, 2021

Republican members of the US Congress have slammed President Joe Biden over withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after Taliban militants have seized the country’s second-and third-biggest cities as resistance from American-trained government forces crumbled.

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and removed the Taliban from power. American forces occupied the country for about 20 years on the pretext of fighting against the Taliban. But as the US forces are leaving Afghanistan the Taliban are set to invade Kabul because the foreign occupation has weakened the country.

An Afghan government official confirmed on Friday that Kandahar, the most important city in the south, was under Taliban control as occupying forces complete their withdrawal after 20 years of war.

According to reports, the possibility that the capital Kabul could fall in the next several weeks has grown stronger with the Taliban’s gains, and that the fall of the government in Kabul could happen much more quickly than previously anticipated.

Several Republican lawmakers said on Friday that Biden’s strategy has led to the collapse of the country.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) said in an op-ed published on Fox News that the situation in Afghanistan was “heartbreaking and infuriating.”

“The Taliban are barreling towards seizing control of the country and could very well take Kabul before the 20th anniversary of September 11th. In their wake, Al Qaeda is poised to come roaring back and attack America, once again,” Waltz wrote.

Critics said that the US war and withdrawal from Iraq under former Democratic President Obama led to the rise of the Daesh terrorists and the same might happen in Afghanistan.

“It’s unclear whether Biden is clueless or heartless or both. But he is living up to his reputation of being ‘wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,’ as described by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates,” Waltz wrote.

Hawkish Republican Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas censured Biden on Friday over Afghanistan and critical race theory, a favorite issue of conservatives.

“It’s clear President Biden and his Department of Defense have been more concerned with critical race theory and other woke policies than planning an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Cotton tweeted.

US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already called on Biden to provide more air support for Afghanistan forces.

“Here’s what should happen now. President Biden should immediately commit to providing more support to Afghan forces, starting with close air support beyond August 31st. Without it, al Qaeda and the Taliban may celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by burning down our Embassy in Kabul,” McConnell said in a statement on Thursday.

The senator said that the country was “careening toward a massive, predictable, and preventable disaster.”

“And the Administration’s surreal efforts to defend President Biden’s reckless policy are frankly humiliating,” he continued.

The Taliban has been pushing back the Afghan military, and overtaking significant areas of territory as American troops withdraw from the country following 20 years of war there.

America’s top military general said last month the Taliban appear to have “strategic momentum” in their sweeping offensives across Afghanistan, as the militants continue to gain more ground in the country.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that the Taliban controls about 212 of Afghanistan’s 419 district centers, indicating the Taliban’s success.

Al-Qaida Will Return to Afghanistan, British Official Says

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Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri

Jamie Dettmer
VOA News
August 13, 2021

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace warned Friday that Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state and predicted a-Qaida will again thrive in the country.

“I’m absolutely worried that failed states are breeding grounds for those types of people,” he told British broadcaster Sky News.

Hours earlier Wallace announced Britain will dispatch hundreds of combat-ready paratroopers to Kabul to help evacuate more than 4,000 Britons and as many as 2,000 Afghans, who are likely to be killed by the Taliban for working with the British military.

The British redeployment will mean Britain will have the same number of troops in the country — 750 — before NATO forces started withdrawing last month from Afghanistan.

Officials also announced Thursday that the British Embassy is to move from the so-called Green Zone on the outskirts of the Afghan capital to what security chiefs think is a more secure undisclosed location. The embassy is to be reduced to a skeleton staff and that staff will focus largely on processing U.K. visas for Afghans earmarked for evacuation.

“The security of British nationals, British military personnel and former Afghan staff is our first priority. We must do everything we can to ensure their safety,” Wallace said Thursday as details of the deployment were announced.  The evacuation force will be drawn mainly from the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the British army’s airborne rapid reaction force.

In a statement, Britain’s Defense Ministry said the deployment, which it said would take place in the next 48 hours, is being made “in light of the increasing violence and rapidly deteriorating security environment in the country.”

All British troops, though, are scheduled to depart Afghanistan by early September, in line with U.S. President Joe Biden’s deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. ground forces, a deadline also being observed by other NATO countries.

The speed of the Taliban’s military advance the past week has caught many British officials by surprise. It has also added to mounting criticism from British Conservative lawmakers and former senior British generals at the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“The decision to withdraw is like a rug pulled from under the feet of our partners,” Conservative Tom Tugendhat, chairman House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Twitter.

He described the move as a “dismal failure of geo-strategy and of statecraft.”

“A hasty exit is not a sign of success. Needing reinforcements to keep the door open as you leave is a sure sign of failure,” he added.

Tugendhat, a former British army officer, served in Afghanistan. He was tweeting as the Taliban captured the city of Herat near the border with Iran as well as Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual home.

General Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, also criticized the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“I’m afraid Joe Biden has triggered this because while the much-reduced US-led NATO force was still in Afghanistan we were putting the backbone into the Afghan National Army and they were holding off the Taliban. Because he has decided to cut and run effectively it’s triggered this situation. It’s very sad,” he said.

U.S.-led NATO forces invaded Afghanistan nearly 20 years ago in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks carried out by al-Qaida, whose leadership was harbored by Afghanistan’s then-Taliban government. A total of 456 British servicemen and Defense Ministry civilians have died in Afghanistan the past two decades.

Britain’s defense secretary was also critical of the withdrawal in his television interview Friday, saying, “This was not the right time or decision to make because, of course, al-Qaida will probably come back.” He noted he had disapproved publicly of the withdrawal deal between U.S. and the Taliban struck in 2020 by the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I was public about it that at the time of the Trump deal. … I felt that that was a mistake to have done it that way, that we will all as an international community pay the consequences of that, but when the United States as the framework nation took that decision, the way we were all configured, the way we had gone in meant that we had to leave as well,” he said.

Biden Tuesday told reporters in Washington that he does not regret the withdrawal, despite the rapid advances being made by the Taliban.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said the U.S. was keeping the commitments it had made to the Afghan government by providing close air support to the Afghan military, paying army salaries and supplying Afghan forces with equipment.

“They’ve got to fight for themselves,” he said. “They’ve got to want to fight,” he added.

Taliban’s Seizure Of Key Cities A ‘Game-Changing Event’ In Afghan War

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Frud Bezhan
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 13, 2021

The Taliban’s capture of two crucial cities in Afghanistan — Kandahar and Herat — marks a major turning point in the 20-year war between the internationally backed Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency, observers say.

Kandahar, the nation’s second-largest city, is the economic hub of southern Afghanistan. It also served as the capital of the brutal Taliban regime that ruled the country from 1996-2001.

The ancient city of Herat, the country’s third-biggest urban center, is a major cultural and commercial hub in western Afghanistan.

Analysts say the fall of the cities in the space of just hours on August 12 has decisively shifted the balance of power in Afghanistan in the Taliban’s favor.

After effectively seizing control of Afghanistan’s west, south-central, and most of the north, the insurgents are expected to advance on Kabul, directly threatening the survival of the Western-backed central government.

“The fall of Kandahar feels like a game-changing event,” says Jonathan Schroden, a former adviser to the U.S. military and a security expert with the U.S.-based nonprofit research and analysis organization CNA.

“As a former capital of the Islamic Emirate [of Afghanistan], the Taliban’s seizure of it feels like the reestablishment of the emirate inside Afghanistan,” he adds, referring to the official name of Taliban’s regime that ruled from 1996-2001.

‘Balance Of Power In Favor Of The Taliban’

The Taliban had captured 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals as of August 13 and seized control of over half of the country’s roughly 400 districts in a blistering offensive since the start of the final withdrawal of foreign troops on May 1.

The Taliban seized Kandahar and Herat after weeks of heavy fighting in and around those cities. Regular government troops, special forces, and civilian militias were increasingly overrun in recent days. Many government forces retreated, surrendered, or deserted, with some even joining the militants.

Ismail Khan, one of Afghanistan’s most powerful former warlords, was captured by Taliban fighters on August 13 shortly after the fall of Herat. The elderly Khan had been leading a pro-government civilian militia in defense of Herat.

In another blow, Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Helmand, fell to the Taliban the same day, further consolidating the militant group’s grip on the country’s southern Pashtun heartland.

The region is a stronghold of the Taliban, a predominately Pashtun group.

Two other southern provincial capitals, Tarin Kowt, in neighboring Uruzgan Province, and Qalat, the capital of Zabul Province, also collapsed on August 13.

Having largely sewn up the south, the Taliban is marching on Kabul, the nation’s capital and home to around 5 million people. Tens of thousands of people fleeing the militants’ advance have taken refuge in the overcrowded city in recent weeks.

Closing In On Kabul

On August 12, the insurgents took over Ghazni, a strategic city in southeastern Afghanistan, directly threatening Kabul. The city is located on the main highway connecting Kabul and Kandahar and is located just 150 kilometers from the capital.

In a further sign that the Taliban was turning its focus on Kabul, the militants on August 13 seized Pul-e Alam, the provincial capital of Logar Province. The city is just 70 kilometers from Kabul. Logar is also the home province of President Ashraf Ghani.

“The simultaneous fall of Ghazni, Herat, and Kandahar has definitely shifted the balance of power in favor of the Taliban,” says Ali Adili, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank in Kabul.

“Residents of Kabul feel the inevitability of the city being the next possible target,” he adds.

‘Politicking’

The speed and scale of the Afghan military’s collapse has shocked observers. The Taliban has gained control of 16 provincial capitals in just a single week.

Some observers have likened the capitulation to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group’s capture of large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, when it declared a so-called “caliphate.”

As of August 13, the government controls only three major cities — Kabul, Jalalabad, and Mazar-e Sharif. The latter is a major commercial hub and the largest city in northern Afghanistan. The city, a rare island of government control in the north, has been under siege for weeks.

Afghan forces are now focused on defending Kabul, where a major Taliban assault could cause a humanitarian disaster. It is unclear if the militants will attempt to forcibly take over the city or try to negotiate its surrender. Afghan officials have vowed to resist the insurgents.

U.S. defense officials say that Taliban fighters could isolate Afghanistan’s capital in a month and possibly take it over within 90 days.

In response to the Taliban’s swift advances, the U.S. military said on August 12 that it would send about 3,000 extra troops to Afghanistan within 48 hours to help evacuate U.S. Embassy staff from Kabul. Other embassies and aid groups said they also were getting their people out.

Washington has declared August 31 as the date when all of its forces will have been withdrawn from Afghanistan — nearly 20 years after a U.S.-led invasion overthrew the Taliban government.

“While there is a lot of politicking that could yet take place to save Kabul from Taliban military capture, the deck now appears to be stacked against the government,” says Schroden.

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Commander Ismail Khan captured as Taliban seize Herat

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İsmail Khan captured by Taliban

Ariana: Taliban insurgents have seized most of Herat, Afghanistan‘s third-largest city, and also captured Ismail Khan, the veteran local commander leading militia resistance there, local officials said on Friday. The fall of Herat, the latest in a series of major provincial cities to be taken by the Taliban in the past few days, has dealt a shocking blow to the government of President Ashraf Ghani only weeks after the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Click here to read more (external link).

Taliban ‘In Control’ Of Kandahar, Seize Herat As Lightning Offensive Continues

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 13, 2021

The Taliban has captured Afghanistan’s second-largest city, Kandahar, local government officials said on August 13, giving the militant group its most significant victory since the launch of a new offensive as U.S. forces withdraw.

“Following heavy clashes late last night, the Taliban took control of Kandahar city,” a local government official told Reuters.

Government forces were still in control of Kandahar’s airport, which was the U.S. military’s second-largest base in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants also seem on the verge of capturing Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province and a key southern city. Two regional lawmakers were quoted by the dpa news agency as saying militants had captured the governor’s office in the city.

The seizures of Kandahar and Herat — the country’s third-largest city captured on August 12 — represent the Taliban’s most significant victories since the broad offensive started in May as U.S.-led foreign forces began withdrawing.

In response to the Taliban’s swift advances, the U.S. military said it would send about 3,000 extra troops within 48 hours to help evacuate U.S. Embassy staff.

Britain said it would deploy around 600 troops to help its citizens leave, while other embassies and aid groups said they also were getting their people out.

The Taliban on August 12 also seized the central city of Ghazni, 150 kilometers southwest of Kabul, according to the Taliban and media.

The Taliban also claimed to have captured Qala-e-Naw in the northwest.

The government still holds the main city in the north — Mazar-e-Sharif — and Jalalabad, near the Pakistani border in the east, as well as Kabul.

The United Nations has warned that a Taliban offensive reaching the capital would have a “catastrophic impact on civilians,” but there appeared to be little hope for negotiations to end the fighting.

In a deal struck with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration last year, the insurgents made a commitment to discuss peace, but negotiations thus far have proved fruitless.

International envoys to Afghan negotiations in Qatar this week called for an accelerated peace process as a “matter of great urgency” and for a halt to attacks on cities.

The UN Security Council is discussing a draft statement that would condemn the Taliban attacks, threaten sanctions, and affirm the nonrecognition of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, diplomats said, according to Reuters.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, dpa, and AP

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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US Deploys 3,000 Troops to Afghanistan After Claiming Kabul Would Not Fall

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Kirby

Michael Hughes
AOPNEWS
August 12, 2021

The US military is moving around 3,000 personnel to Afghanistan to evacuate diplomats and ensure the drawdown of forces is secure, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday.

The announcement comes in the wake of reports that U.S. intelligence has predicted that Kabul would fall within a few months. The Biden administration all week had refuted the report and the very notion that the Afghan government was at any risk of being toppled.

“The first movement will consist of three infantry battalions that are currently in the Central Command Area of Responsibility… Those three infantry battalions will comprise approximately 3,000 personnel, and they will be in addition to those troops that are already in Kabul,” Kirby said at a press conference.

Kirby said the first three battalions will deploy to Kabul International Airport within the next 24 to 48 hours, but reassured that the United States would not use the airport as a base to launch airstrikes.

The State Department said the U.S. embassy in Kabul remains open at its current location despite the call to evacuate.  The U.S., spokesperson Ned Price said, is in “no way abandoning the people in Afghanistan.”

According to Kirby, once diplomats are extracted the U.S. plans to leave about 1,000 boots on the ground to protect the remaining diplomatic presence in Kabul.

However, Kirby also claimed Washington was not delaying the deadline to remove all troops by August 31. He also vowed that the United States is not considering adding more troops if the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.

In addition, the Pentagon spokesperson said the U.S. will send 1,000 Air Force troops to Qatar to accelerate the processing of Afghan immigrant special visas.

The U.S. move contradicts assurances the White House and State Department delivered this week that Washington was maintaining its current approach. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he does not regret his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan despite the Taliban gains. The White House also said the fall of Kabul is “not inevitable.”

On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the idea that the Taliban’s ongoing offensive in Afghanistan is unstoppable is not the reality on the ground. Price observed that Afghanistan’s government security forces still total roughly 300,000 strong, greatly outnumbering the Taliban in addition to having U.S. and other international support.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is following with deep concern the ongoing hostilities in the Afghan provinces of Herat and Kandahar, and is particularly worried about the shift of fighting to urban areas, his spokesman said on Thursday.

As the U.S. was claiming that the fall of Kabul was not inevitable, Afghanistan’s neighbors have been bracing for the worst scenario. Russia’s defense ministry sounded the alarm that the border with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan is controlled by the Taliban movement and it is important for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to be ready for possible infiltration of terrorists.

After talks in Doha on Thursday, envoys from several countries including from the UN in a joint statement warned that they would not recognize any government in Kabul that is taken through military force. The statement was signed by representatives from China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the UK, the UN, EU, U.S., Germany, India, Norway, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.

“Participants agreed that the peace process needs to be accelerated as a matter of great urgency on the basis of the negotiations of concrete proposals from both sides,” the joint statement said.

They also expressed concerned about reports of continued civilian casualties, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations.

The British defense ministry said the UK will send 600 troops to Afghanistan to assist in the evacuation of its citizens and former Afghan employees.

Turkey in the meantime has been vowing to step up its presence to protect the people of Afghanistan, which has been met with violent threats from Taliban leadership.

For some, the situation invokes memories of the fall of Saigon when American diplomats jumped from the embassy roof into helicopters as the Viet Cong finished conquering Vietnam.