More than 1,000 Afghan soldiers have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan after clashing with Taliban militants, officials have said.
The troops retreated over the border to “save their own lives”, according to a statement by Tajikistan’s border guard.
Violence has risen in Afghanistan and the Taliban have been making significant gains, particularly in the north of the country, in recent weeks.
The surge coincides with the end of Nato’s 20-year military mission.
Members of the Takhar provincial council said food prices have increased substantially in areas that have fallen to the Taliban. “People are facing problems there; services are nonexistent, clinics, and schools are closed,” said Mohammad Azam Afzali, a member of the Takhar provincial council.
Haji Ghoulam Farouq Siawshani watched the Taliban rampage across northern Afghanistan this month, weighing up the threat from militants on his doorstep. Then, 10 days ago, the former oil trader turned militia commander issued a call to arms.
“Where the Taliban go, they bring destruction, and they are one kilometre away from my village,” he told the Guardian. “We decided to respond.”
He now leads a few dozen men he armed with ageing Kalashnikovs, in Gozara district, just south of the ancient trade and cultural centre of Herat, on the country’s western border with Iran.
The Taliban has “prevailed” in its battle with the West in Afghanistan, the former head of the British Army has said, as it emerged all UK and US troops will be withdrawn on Sunday.
Writing in The Telegraph, General Lord Dannatt said the mission had been intended to give the Afghan people the choice of a more “moderate and peaceful” life.
“Ultimately, Taliban force of arms has prevailed, and the people of that country have been denied the chance to choose a better way of life,” Lord Dannatt said. “Tragically, a descent into the chaos of civil war seems highly likely.”
The last US and Nato forces have left Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, the centre of the war against militants for some 20 years.
The pull-out could signal that the complete withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan is imminent.
President Joe Biden has said US forces will be gone by 11 September.
But the withdrawal from the sprawling base, north of Kabul, comes as the main jihadist group, the Taliban, advances in many parts of Afghanistan.
The US military could complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan within days, reports say, amid increasing Taliban battlefield gains.
US officials told Reuters that some US forces were expected to stay to protect the US embassy and Kabul airport.
The reports came as a top US commander warned the country risked sliding into civil war as the last US troops leave.
Fighting has surged since the US began withdrawing last month, with the Taliban seizing swathes of territory.
As Nato troops prepare to leave, fears are growing for minorities and women in the city
Dead friends visit the schoolgirl at night. They return to her dreams as she last saw them: their bodies blasted down the street by the school gates, some with their satchels and clothes aflame.
“They come every night,” Rokiya Ahmedi told me. “I see my classmates dead. I see them on fire. I hear the screaming. I wake up screaming too. I scream for what I see, and I scream because of the fear that men will come to kill me also.”
There is no hope for Afghanistan.
The US plans to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked for the American military ahead of September’s troop withdrawal, senior officials have said.
The plan could involve moving as many as 50,000 people to other countries along with their families.
Afghan interpreters who have worked for the US for years fear reprisals from the Taliban after the withdrawal.
As many as 18,000 Afghans have applied for US visas, but the lengthy process has been hindered by delays.
The United States armed forces have spent 20 years in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and other terrorists, building roads and schools, training the Afghan military, and trying to create a stable government in a country that has never been a country.
The Taliban on Sunday touted “a genuine Islamic system” as the best way to end the war in Afghanistan and ensure rights, including for women.
The Islamic militants made the comments in a statement that reaffirmed their commitment to peace talks with representatives from the Afghan government.
Since the beginning of NATO’s official troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on May 1, the Islamist militant group has taken over at least 27 districts from Afghan forces, and the number is rapidly increasing.
The Taliban are intensifying attacks across Afghanistan to gain more territory ahead of NATO’s troop withdrawal in September. The militant group now controls vast swaths of land.
Heavy fighting in many districts in recent weeks has inflicted heavy losses on both Taliban and government forces.
On Wednesday, more than 20 Afghan commandos were killed in the northern Faryab province as they tried to regain control of Dawlat Abad district, which Taliban militants had seized 10 days ago.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid announced on Twitter that Taliban fighters overran government security forces with ease this week in the Maidan Wardak Province, just west of Kabul.
His posts included several pictures of booty from the conquest, which included American-made machine guns, rifles, carbines and armored vehicles.
“The enemy fled on seeing the casualties, and a large number of tanks, heavy and light weapons and ammunition fell into the hands of the Mujahideen,” he tweeted.
German troops won’t let a single drop of booze go to waste as they withdraw from Afghanistan.
About 65,000 cans of beer and at least 340 bottles of wine are being shipped back home as German forces exit the country, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
The logistical undertaking stands in stark contrast to the fact that German troops reportedly are leaving some military equipment behind as they exit Afghanistan.
ISLAMABAD – The Taliban seized a district in southern Afghanistan Friday without facing any resistance from Afghan government security forces, bringing to seven the number of districts the insurgents have overrun since the United States and its NATO allies began withdrawing their troops from the country a month ago.
Separately, an overnight roadside bombing of a vehicle in the national capital, Kabul, killed a young female Afghan television anchor and her mother, and wounded her sister. Mina Khairi was working for the Ariana News channel for the past three years, her employer said.
The U.S. military exit from Afghanistan is beginning to look “just like Vietnam,” a key lawmaker warned Tuesday as questions grow about Biden administration’s short-term strategy to ensure U.S. civilian personnel and Afghan allies aren’t slaughtered by the Taliban and the long-term prospect that the country’s pro-Western government may collapse without international support.
A heated hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday underscored the mounting chaos surrounding the withdrawal of the remaining 3,500 U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which President Biden has ordered to be completed no later than Sept. 11. Thousands more NATO and allied troops are also heading for the exits in the wake of Mr. Biden’s pullout decision.
The government will almost certainly fall but who cares?
