Taliban takes Kandahar, final surge of US troops announced
By Matthew Knott Updated August 13, 2021
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle...argest-city-in-onslaught-20210813-p58id0.html
Washington: The Biden administration is temporarily sending thousands of troops to Afghanistan to provide security for American diplomats and civilians to leave the country ahead of the official end of the US military mission there later this month.
The deployment of an estimated 3000 US troops, who will be joined by hundreds of British soldiers, takes place as the Taliban continues to make
dramatic advances across Afghanistan by seizing major cities across the country.
The Taliban on Friday (AEST) captured Afghanistan’s second and third-largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, according to the Associated Press. This means the radical Islamic group has recently taken control of 12 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals.
Afghans displaced by the Taliban’s advance in Kabul, AfghanistanCredit:Getty
The Kandahar airfield was one of the main bases housing US and NATO forces before it was handed over to Afghan security forces in May.
Most of the US troops will be sent to the Karzai International Airport in Kabul to help evacuate staff from the American embassy, a move that highlights the rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground for the US-trained Afghan forces.
The US embassy in Kabul issued its second alert in less than a week urging American citizens to “leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options”.
The Indian government has urged all its nationals to leave Afghanistan immediately because it expects commercial flights to soon stop leaving the country.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said a “core” diplomatic staff would remain at the embassy to continue their diplomatic and consular work.
Displaced Afghans arrive at a makeshift camp from the northern provinces desperately leaving their homes behind in Kabul, Afghanistan.Credit:Getty
He said the US will also accelerate departure of Afghans who have
previously worked with the US government and have applied for asylum in the United States.
“The embassy remains open,” Price said at a briefing on Friday (AEST). “This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not a wholesale withdrawal.”
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the additional troops are expected to be deployed within 24 to 48 hours.
Earlier this week Kirby said of the Afghan security forces that Afghanistan is “their country to defend now; this is their struggle”.
The US embassy evacuation of Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City) in 1975, after North Vietnamese took over South Vietnam.Credit:Corbis/Bettmann REUTERS
Reuters quoted a US defence official saying that Taliban fighters could isolate Kabul in 30 days and possibly take it over in 90 as the Islamic militants rapidly advance throughout the country.
The Afghan government may eventually be forced to pull back to defend the capital and just a few other cities in the coming days if the Taliban keep up their momentum.
The Taliban is now estimated to control around two-thirds of Afghanistan.
Many commentators saw echoes of the speedy Communist capture of South Vietnam following the evacuation of US civilian and military personnel from Saigon in 1975.
Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Ghazni on Thursday.Credit:AP
“I never liked the Saigon analogies with Afghanistan,” Michael Kugelman, an expert in South Asia at the Wilson Centre, said on Twitter.
“For one thing, US forces aren’t under fire as they withdraw. But events of the last 24 hours, and the prospect of US diplomatic evacuations as Taliban draws closer to Kabul, bring Saigon to mind.”
US President Joe Biden has insisted he will
not budge from his plan to withdraw all US troops by August despite the possibility of a speedy Taliban takeover of the country.
“I do not regret my decision,” Biden said earlier this week. “We spent over a trillion dollars, over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces...they’ve got to fight for themselves.”
Thousands of people have fled their homes amid fears the Taliban will again impose a brutal, repressive government, all but eliminating women’s rights and conducting public amputations, stonings and executions. Peace talks in Qatar remain stalled, though diplomats met throughout the day.
Earlier on Friday (AEST) before reportedly capturing Kandahar and Herat, Taliban militants raised their white flags imprinted with an Islamic proclamation of faith over the city of Ghazni, just 130 kilometres south-west of Kabul.
A Taliban flag flies at a square in the city of Ghazni on Thursday.Credit:AP
Fighters crowded onto one seized Humvee and drove down a main road, with the golden dome of a mosque near the governor’s office visible behind them, yelling: “God is great!” The insurgents, cradling their rifles, later gathered at one roundabout for an impromptu speech by a commander. One militant carried a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
The loss of Ghazni – which sits along the Kabul-Kandahar Highway – could complicate resupply and movement for government forces, as well as squeeze the capital from the south.
Taliban forces are tightening their grip on Afghanistan, claiming nine cities.
In southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s heartland, heavy fighting continued in Lashkar Gah, where surrounded government forces hoped to hold onto the capital of Helmand province.
Envoys from the US, China and other countries on Friday (AEST) called for an accelerated peace process for Afghanistan as a “matter of great urgency” and an immediate halt to attacks on provincial capitals in Afghanistan.
The representatives, who are meeting to try to break a deadlock in peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government, reaffirmed that foreign capitals would not recognise any government in Afghanistan “imposed through the use of military force”.
with AP
