Warlords, Kabul regime vow to fight it out as Taliban make rapid advances

Sandeep Dixit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 13

Even as the Taliban captured over half of the 34 provincial capitals, some of them after surrender by local governors, India and some other nations are making a last-ditch attempt to mount international pressure on the Taliban through the UN Security Council.

Edit: Afghanistan in Turmoil

More cities fall

• Taliban sweep across Afghanistan’s South, capture Kandahar, Herat, Lashkar Gah
• Insurgents take half of country’s 34 provincial capitals, control 65% Afghan territory
• US, UK send troops to get staff out; UN food agency warns of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

Refugee crisis

• Fighting raises fears of refugee crisis and rollback of gains in human rights
• 4 lakh civilians forced out of their homes since the beginning of this year; 2.5 lakh since May, says the UN

Evacuate Sikhs and Hindus, says World Punjabi organisation

• India-built Salma Dam, power transmission station captured

Afghanistan is heading towards civil war and terror group Al Qaida will probably come back. — Ben Wallace, Defence Secy, UK

Major cities of Afghanistan in the south, west and east have fallen to the Taliban who have formed a virtual ring around Kabul. Kandahar, Herat, Lashkar Gah, Nimroz, Farah, Kunduz and Ghazni have been captured. Apart from a clutch of small towns, capital Kabul, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif, that have large populations, remain to be taken.

The capitals of Goh and Uruzgan provinces were abandoned by local officials and security forces. The Taliban have captured India’s most visible public work in Afghanistan — the Salma Dam — following the surrender of Ismael Khan in Herat. They are also in control of the power transmission station built by India at Pol-e-Khumri in Kunduz province.

Embassies in Kabul are packing up and the US is sending 3,000 soldiers to secure the airport to carry out the safe evacuation of its staff. US Defence Secretary Austin Lloyd and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to embattled Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who then summoned a high-level security meeting.

First Vice-President Amrullah Saleh said the meeting decided to “continue the fight” against the Taliban though the only voices of support came from ageing insurgent warlords of the north-east whose Uzbek and Hazara populations are apprehensive of the Pashtun-dominated Taliban.

Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum said in Mazar-e-Sharif that he would defend the nation. Atta Mohammad Noor also vowed to fight on, saying President Ghani had agreed to provide them with equipment and support. Meanwhile, the UNSC is discussing a draft statement to threaten the Taliban for attacks that have caused high civilian casualties and risked Afghanistan’s peace and stability.

The draft states that it would neither support the establishment of any government through military force or the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The text has to be adopted unanimously by the 15-member Security Council. NATO has called a meeting next week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. The UK, a prominent NATO member, has warned the situation is leading to a civil war, calling on the West to understand that the Taliban was not a single entity but an umbrella for several competing interests.