Afghan government seeks peace, as capitals fall to the Taliban

Afghanistan's rapid fall under the onslaught of the Taliban continues.

 Afghan government seeks peace, as capitals fall to the Taliban

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• The story: As government security forces steadily retreated across Afghanistan, the government gave a proposal to Taliban negotiators in Qatar offering a power-sharing deal in return for an end to fighting.
• Details: The peace offer came as the Taliban captured a strategic provincial capital near Kabul on 12th August, the 10th the insurgents have taken in a weeklong sweep across Afghanistan just weeks before the end of the American military mission there.

1. Seizing Ghazni cuts off a crucial highway linking the Afghan capital with the country's southern provinces, which similarly find themselves under assault as part of an insurgent push some 20 years after US and NATO troops invaded and ousted the Taliban government.
2. While Kabul itself was not directly under threat, the loss of Ghazni tightened the grip of a resurgent Taliban estimated to now hold some two-thirds of the nation, and thousands of people have fled their homes.
3. US military intelligence assessment suggested Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days and that, if current trends hold, the Taliban could gain full control of the country within a few months.
4. The Afghan government may eventually be forced to pull back to defend the capital and just a few other cities.

• Unexpected collapse: The Talibani onslaught showed a stunning collapse of Afghan forces and renews questions about where the over $830 billion spent by the US Defence Department on fighting, training those troops, and reconstruction efforts went — especially as Taliban fighters ride on American-made Humvees and pickup trucks with M-16s slung across their shoulders.

1. It is clear that the Taliban would turn back the clock and reimpose a brutal regime.
2. Already there are reports of repressive restrictions on women and revenge killings.
3. Afghan security forces and the government have not responded to repeated requests for comment over the days of fighting.

• Cutting deals: Some locals alleged that Ghazni's provincial governor and police chief made a deal with the Taliban to flee after their surrender. Taliban video and photos purported to show the governor's convoy passing by Taliban fighters unstopped as part of the deal. Later, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said the governor and his deputies had been arrested over that alleged deal.
• Importance of Ghazni: The loss of Ghazni — which sits along the Kabul-Kandahar Highway that connects the Afghan capital to the southern provinces — could complicate resupply and movement for government forces, as well as squeeze the capital from the south. Already, the Taliban's weeklong blitz has seen the militants seize nine other provincial capitals around the country.
• Media coverage: Many are in the country's northeast corner, pressuring Kabul from that direction as well. Angry at pan-Arab satellite news network Al-Jazeera for reporting on troops earlier surrendering in Kunduz, military said the channel would be investigated by authorities. Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar where the Taliban has a diplomatic office, said since it didn't "have a correspondent currently in Kunduz, we rely on reputed international news agencies" and used that material in its reports on the surrenders.
• Endgame: America and some western nations have sent thousands of troops back into Afghanistan, to help "relocate" their diplomatic staff. Surely, the West never imagined how fast this collapse would come. The months ahead will provide more understanding of what really went wrong even after twenty years of western engagement.

 

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