Image source,Reuters
Armed militias in Afghanistan claim that they will defend Kabul against the Taliban
The Taliban warned the BBC that after NATO’s September withdrawal deadline, any foreign troops remaining in Afghanistan will be regarded as occupiers and must face possible risks.
Before the Taliban issued this warning, there were reports that 1,000 allied forces, mainly composed of American forces, might still remain in Afghanistan to protect the diplomatic mission and Kabul International Airport.
NATO’s 20-year military operations in Afghanistan are almost at an end, but violence in Afghanistan continues to increase, and the Taliban have occupied more territory.
According to the agreement reached with the militant group, the United States and its NATO allies agreed to withdraw all troops in exchange for the Taliban’s promise not to allow Al Qaeda or any other extremist organization to operate in areas controlled by the Taliban.
U.S. President Biden set the deadline for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops on September 11, the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. However, there are reports that the withdrawal may be completed soon in the next few days.
As the Afghan forces prepare to take charge of security work independently, people are increasingly worried about the future situation in Kabul.
“We are against foreign troops”
Taliban spokesman Sohail Shahin said that it is “not the policy of the Taliban” to seize Kabul by military means.
But he told the BBC at the Taliban’s office in Qatar that after the withdrawal is complete, no foreign troops, including construction contractors commissioned by the military, should stay in the city.
Shaheen told the BBC: “If they violate the Doha Agreement and leave the troops, then in this case, how to take the next step will be determined by our leadership.”
He said: “We will react, and the final decision is our leadership.”
He insisted that diplomats, non-governmental organizations and other foreign civilians will not be the targets of the Taliban, and it is completely unnecessary to leave them with armed forces to provide protection.
Image source,EPA
The Taliban said that the U.S. withdrawal from Bagram Airport, the largest military base in Afghanistan, was a “historic moment.”
“We are opposed to foreign troops, not diplomats, NGOs and workers. The operation of NGOs and the operation of embassies are what our people need. We will not pose any threat to them.”
Shaheen said that last week’s withdrawal from Bagram Airport, which was once the largest US military base in Afghanistan, was a “historic moment.”
At the time when NATO allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the outside world‘s attention to the Taliban itself shows that the organization is unusual.
Who is the Taliban?
Although the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan by US-led forces in 2001, the organization has gradually recovered its strength since then and occupied territory again.
After two decades of war in Afghanistan, the United States is preparing to complete its withdrawal before September 11. During this process, the Taliban began to occupy Afghanistan’s military outposts, towns and villages, and surrounding major cities, which once again intensified people’s concerns that the Taliban might overthrow the Afghan government. Worries.
The Taliban held direct talks with the United States as early as 2018. In February 2020, the two sides reached a peace agreement in Doha. The United States promised to withdraw its troops and the Taliban promised to prevent attacks on the US military. Other commitments include not allowing Al-Qaida or other militants to operate in areas under its control, and embarking on negotiations for peace across Afghanistan.
But in the following year, the Taliban continued to target Afghan security forces and civilians. Now, when the United States is preparing to leave, the Taliban are making a comeback and are advancing rapidly across the country.
Rise to the top
Image source,Getty Images
As the United States and NATO allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban in Afghanistan are making a comeback.
The Taliban, which means “student” in Pashto, appeared in northern Pakistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the early 1990s. It is believed that this Pashtun-based organization first appeared in religious seminaries, mostly funded by Saudi Arabia, preaching a strong Sunni Islamic doctrine.
The Taliban pledged to restore peace and security in the Pashtun region that straddles Pakistan and Afghanistan, and pledged to implement strict Islamic teachings after they take power.
Starting in southwestern Afghanistan, the influence of the Taliban expanded rapidly. In September 1995, they occupied the province of Herat (Heart), which borders Iran; a full year later, they occupied Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and overthrew the regime of President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Rabbani was one of the founders of the Afghan Mujahideen organization that resisted Soviet occupation. By 1998, the Taliban controlled almost 90% of Afghanistan.
After the Soviet Union was driven out, Afghans, tired of the excessive behavior and infighting of the jihadists, generally welcomed the new Taliban. The early popularity of the Taliban was mainly due to their success in eradicating corruption, curbing illegal activities, and making roads and areas under their control safe and prosperous.
However, the Taliban also introduced or supported Islamic punitive measures, such as public execution of persons guilty of murder or adultery, and the punishment of the offenders for theft is hacking. Men are required to grow beards, and women must wear robes that cover their bodies.
The Taliban also banned television, music and movies, and opposed girls over the age of 10 from going to school. They are accused of various violations of human rights and culture. One of the most notorious examples is that in 2001, the Taliban blew up the famous Bamiyan Buddha statue in central Afghanistan despite the strong opposition of the international community.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied ties to the Taliban, but there is no doubt that many Afghans who first joined the Taliban were educated in madrassas in Pakistan.
Image source,Getty Images
In October 2001, the Taliban took control of the highway from Kandahar to Herat.
When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, only three countries recognized its legitimacy. Pakistan was one of the three, and the other two were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Pakistan was also the last country to sever diplomatic relations with the Taliban.
The Taliban once threatened to destabilize Pakistan from the northwest region under its control. In October 2012, the most striking and internationally condemned of all the Pakistani Taliban attacks occurred when a female student, Malala Yousafzai, was shot on her way home from Mingora town .
Two years later, after the Peshawar school massacre, Pakistan launched a large-scale encirclement and suppression of the Taliban, which attacked the Taliban’s influence in Pakistan. In 2013, at least three key figures of the Pakistani Taliban were killed in a U.S. drone attack, including the leader of the organization Hakimullah Mahsud.
“Shielding” Al Qaeda
After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, the Taliban in Afghanistan became the focus of world attention. The Taliban are accused of providing refuge to bin Laden, the main suspect of 9/11, and his al-Qaeda movement.
On October 7, 2001, a military alliance led by the United States launched an attack in Afghanistan. By the first week of December, the Taliban regime collapsed. The organization’s then leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and other senior figures, including bin Laden, escaped one of the world’s largest raids and managed to escape.
According to reports, many senior Taliban leaders have taken refuge in Quetta, Pakistan, where they continue to command the Taliban, but Pakistan has always denied the existence of Taliban forces in Quetta.
Although the number of foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan is increasing, the Taliban have gradually recovered and expanded their influence in Afghanistan, causing turmoil in many parts of Afghanistan, and violence has returned to a high level that has not occurred since 2001.
The Taliban carried out several attacks on Kabul, and in September 2012, they also carried out an attack on a NATO base.
In 2013, when the Taliban announced plans to open an office in Qatar, it sparked hopes for peace through negotiations. However, the parties still distrust each other and are full of suspicion, and violence continues to occur.
In August 2015, the Taliban admitted that they had concealed the news that leader Omar had died for more than two years. There have been reports that he died of health problems in a Pakistani hospital. In the following month, the Taliban stated that they had put aside several weeks of internal power struggles and united around the new leader Mansour, who was once Omar’s deputy.
At about the same time, the Taliban seized control of a provincial capital for the first time since their defeat in 2001, and took control of the strategic city of Kunduz.
Mansour was killed in a U.S. drone attack in May 2016. His deputy, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, took over and still controls the Taliban.
Countdown to withdrawal
In the year after the United States and the Taliban directly negotiated a peace agreement in February 2020, the Taliban seemed to have changed their tactics. Instead of launching well-planned attacks on cities and military outposts, they switched to intimidating civilians in Afghanistan. Targeted assassination operation.
They targeted journalists, judges, peace figures, and women in important positions as their assassinations, which seemed to indicate that the Taliban did not change their extremist ideology, but only changed their strategy.
Although Afghan officials are extremely worried about the government’s vulnerability to the Taliban without international support and have repeatedly expressed concern, the new U.S. President Biden announced in April 2021 that all U.S. troops will leave Afghanistan before September 11. This is the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
The Taliban finally survived the 20-year war initiated by the superpowers and began to seize large tracts of territory, threatening to overthrow the Kabul government again after the withdrawal of foreign powers.
It is believed that the Taliban now have more numbers than at any time since they were driven out in 2001. According to NATO’s latest estimates, their conventional armed forces have as many as 85,000. The extent of the Taliban’s control over the territory is more difficult to estimate, because regions oscillate back and forth between the Taliban and government forces, but the most recent estimate is that the Taliban occupy about one-fifth to one-third of the country.
The Taliban is advancing faster than many people expected. General Austin Miller, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, warned in June that Afghanistan may be sliding into a chaotic civil war. He said this worries “the whole world.”
A June U.S. intelligence assessment report reportedly concluded that the Afghan government may fall within six months of the departure of U.S. troops.