The advancing Taliban fighters moved into the Afghan capital on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled to neighboring Tajikstan, overturning all expectations in the endgame of the two-decades-old conflict.
The U.S. had stepped up efforts to evacuate the embassy staff in view of the looming fall of Kabul, which happened much faster than regional and international anticipations and calculations. The U.S. and NATO are expected to complete a withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan by the end of the month. President Joe Biden had ordered thousands of troops to Afghanistan to help with evacuations of the American diplomats, citizens, and Afghans working for the U.S. government.
Videos of the Afghan Taliban in the Afghan presidential palace and the streets of Kabul meant that they had wrested back the control of the country 20 years after they were removed from power in 2001.
Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, confirmed the departure of President Ghani from Afghanistan.
“He left Afghanistan in a hard time, God hold him accountable,” Abdullah said of his longtime political rival and power-sharer.
A White House picture shows President Biden with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chairman Abdullah Abdullah
Later, in a Facebook post, Ashraf Ghani said he had left the country to save the country from slipping into bloodshed. Had he stayed in the capital, it would have led to loss of lives.
“Taliban have won the judgement of sword and guns and now they are responsible for protecting the countrymen’s honor, wealth and self-esteem. Didn’t they win the legitimacy of hearts. Never in history has dry power given legitimacy to anyone and won’t give it to them,” Ghani said, according to a Facebook translation of his message.
In a video posted on Facebook, Abdullah, speaking in Persian, appealed to the Afghan security forces to do their part to maintain peace in the country. He also appealed to the Taliban to not harm anyone or cause disharmony in Kabul. He said Ghani had left the country in troubling times, for which he will be remembered in history.
The Taliban fighters sought the unconditional surrender of the central government but said they would not exact revenge on any civilians.
Meanwhile, Afghan civilians feared that the Taliban would reimpose their brutal rule as they had done during the 1990s. They had removed women from national life and closed down girls’ schools.
The Taliban are about to secure sweeping powers, having brushed aside suggestions of a transitional government.
Some reports said the Taliban ordered their fighters to enter Kabul to prevent looting after local police deserted their posts, a spokesman for the militant group, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement.
In the U.S., critics of the American military pullout questioned Biden Administration’s strategy.
But several experts were left wondering as to what happened to the much-publicized training and arming of the Afghan security forces, who simply melted away as the Taliban took control of city after city.
Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said the government will enter into talks with the Taliban for the peaceful transition of power.
In a video statement shared on Twitter, Mirzakwal said, “As the Minister of Interior of Afghanistan, I ordered all security forces, special forces, and other personnel to continue their duties in different places to ensure the security of the city. Our people should not worry. There is no security problem in the city at the moment.”
There were also videos circulating on social media platforms that showed some Afghans welcoming the Taliban.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has defended the Administration’s decision to pull out troops from Afghanistan. He also acknowledged in a CNN program on Sunday that the Taliban was at its strongest point since it was pushed out of power in 2001.
“And the fact is we’ve seen that force has been unable to defend the country,” he said of the Afghan security forces that had been trained at a cost of billions of dollars to the United States.
“That has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” Blinken said of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
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