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Kabul — After the Taliban’s thunder advances took Muslim groups to the door of the capital within a few days, the United States began evacuating diplomats and recruited more troops to secure Kabul Airport and the embassy. I was dispatched.
Just last week, US intelligence estimate Kabul said it could last for at least three months.
“As we are talking, a few people are leaving now, and the majority of our staff are ready to leave,” a US official told Reuters on Sunday. “The embassy is still functioning.”
The collapse of Jalalabad also gave Taliban control of the road leading to the Pakistani city of Peshawar, one of the major highways to the landlocked country of Afghanistan.
It had little fighting after the Taliban seized the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif late Saturday.
“There are currently no conflicts in Jalalabad as the governor surrendered to the Taliban,” a Jalalabad-based Afghan official told Reuters. “Allowing passage to the Taliban was the only way to save the lives of civilians.”
A second security official in the city said the Taliban had agreed to give government officials and security forces safe passage while leaving Jalalabad.
The surrender decision was made to avoid “injuries and destruction,” he added.
The Taliban campaign accelerated as Afghan defense appeared to have collapsed last month after US-led troops withdrew most of the remaining troops.
On Saturday, US President Joe Biden approved the deployment of an army of 5,000 to evacuate civilians and ensure an “orderly and safe” drawdown of US military personnel. US defense officials said it included an army of 1,000 newly approved by the 82nd Airborne Division.
Equipment that falls into the enemy’s hands
Taliban fighters entered Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday with virtually no opposition. Security forces fled the highway to neighboring Uzbekistan, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north. An unconfirmed video on social media showed that Afghan military vehicles and uniformed men are filling the iron bridge between the Afghan towns of Hairatan and Uzbekistan.
Two influential militia leaders in support of the government, Atta Muhammad Nur and Abdul Rashid Dostam, one of the regional leaders of the Anti-Soviet Mujahideen, Soviet withdrawal-also ran away.. Noor said on social media that the Taliban had been handed control of the state of Balkh, where Mazar-i-Sharif is located, for a “conspiracy.”
“Despite our firm resistance, sadly all government and #ANDSF equipment have been handed over to the #Taliban as a result of a large, organized and timid plan,” Noor wrote. .. twitter.. “They coordinated plans for Marshal Dostam and I to trap, but they were unsuccessful.”
In a statement late Saturday, the Taliban argued that its rapid increase showed that it was widely accepted by the Afghan people and reassured both Afghanistan and foreigners that they were safe. ..
The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) said, “As always, it will protect their lives, property and honor and create a peaceful and safe environment for their loved ones,” diplomats and aid workers also have problems. He added that he would not face.
Increasingly enclosed capital
As the capital appeared to be increasingly isolated as a government hub, Afghans flowed into Kabul and fled the state, Hardline Islamist rules..
Early on Sunday, refugees from Taliban-controlled states were seen unloading taxis, and the family stood outside the embassy gate.
One inhabitant said on Saturday night that hundreds of people were sleeping in tents, outdoors in the city, on the roadsides and in parking lots. “You can see horror on their faces,” he said.
Western governments were accelerating plans to evacuate their embassy staff, citizens, and Afghans who worked for them.
The State Department has contacted supporters in Kabul to work with Americans and request the names of Afghans who need to evacuate, two sources familiar with the matter said. The list of names may include journalists and human rights activists.
British media reported that the British ambassador would leave the country by Sunday night. The country, which had sent an army of 600, hastened the departure of the British, as the Taliban’s risk of overtaking the airport increased, the report said.
Biden told Qatar’s Taliban officials that any action that would endanger US personnel would “face a swift and powerful response by the US military.”
Approaching Kabul
Kandahar, the largest city in the south and the center of the Taliban, was put under militant control on Friday. Herat, the largest city in the west and near the border with Iran, also collapsed on Friday.
Biden faces growing domestic criticism as the Taliban occupy cities one after another much faster than expected. The president has postponed the planned withdrawal date initiated by former Republican President Donald Trump for several months, ending US military missions in Afghanistan by August 31 and smashing the agreement with the Taliban.
Biden said it was up to the Afghan army to retain its own territory. “The existence of endless Americans in the midst of a civil war in another country was unacceptable to me,” Biden said on Saturday.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met with local leaders and international partners, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Saturday. According to the State Department, Crab and Blinken discussed urgent efforts to reduce violence in Afghanistan.
Qatar, which has hosted decisive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, said it urged armed groups to ceasefire. The crab has shown no sign of responding to the Taliban’s request to resign as a condition of the ceasefire.
Report by Kabul and Washington bureaus, written by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alasdair Pal and Cynthia Osterman. Edited by William Mallard. The Epoch Times contributed to this report.
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