“For the last seven months, I’ve watched generals engage in Twitter fights with people, debate the merits of critical race theory on Capitol Hill,” Parnell stated. “It seems like our generals were more concerned with fighting Tucker Carlson than they were the Taliban and we are seeing the tragic and disastrous consequences of that play out on the battlefield right now.”
As the Taliban moves into Kabul and demands the unconditional surrender of the central government, Taliban commander Muhammed Arif Mustafa told CNN: “It’s our belief that one day, mujahedin will have victory, and Islamic law will come not to just Afghanistan, but all over the world. We are not in a hurry. We believe it will come one day. Jihad will not end until the last day.” The CNN “journalist,” demonstrating yet again its spectacular misunderstanding of the conflict (which, of course, is shared by the U.S. foreign policy establishment), followed that with “It’s a chilling admission from a group that claims it wants peace.” The Taliban does indeed want peace. It wants the peace that will follow the world’s submission to the hegemony of Islamic law.
They certainly have the weapons.
The Taliban are now in possession of more Blackhawk helicopters than 166 other nations around the globe. pic.twitter.com/2q9CyXcBNy
— CulturalHusbandry (@APhilosophae) August 13, 2021
Beijing is taking full advantage of the U.S. and NATO forces’ imminent departure from Afghanistan.
President Biden announced in early July that U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan by Aug. 31, a deadline moved up from Sept. 11.
Meanwhile, the Taliban is rapidly increasing its advances in Afghanistan as the American drawdown nears.
West Wing officials voiced their frustrations with former President Donald Trump in conversations with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.
The officials complained that Trump only left them with 3,000 troops in Afghanistan, forcing them to withdraw because there was no way to keep the peace with such a small force, according to the report.
The Taliban fighters we meet are stationed just 30 minutes from one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, Mazar-i-Sharif.
The “ghanimat” or spoils of war they’re showing off include a Humvee, two pick-up vans and a host of powerful machine guns. Ainuddin, a stony-faced former madrassa (religious school) student who’s now a local military commander, stands at the centre of a heavily-armed crowd.
The insurgents have been capturing new territory on what seems like a daily basis as international troops have all but withdrawn. Caught in the middle is a terrified population.
The Taliban seized a sixth Afghan provincial capital on Monday following a weekend blitz across the north that saw urban centres fall in quick succession and the government struggle to keep the militants at bay.
Insurgents entered Aibak without a fight after community elders pleaded with officials to spare the city from more violence following weeks of clashes on the outskirts, said Sefatullah Samangani, deputy governor of Samangan province.
“The governor accepted and withdrew all the forces from the city,” Samangani added, saying the Taliban were now in “full control”.
A suicide-bomb and gun attack in Kabul’s Green Zone that targeted Afghanistan’s acting defence minister and killed eight people on Tuesday was claimed by the Taliban, as the hardline Islamist group continued to escalate violence across the country.
The suicide bombing, which targeted the house used by Bismillah Mohammadi, was one of the most significant in the Afghan capital in recent months. It came amid heavy fighting in the south and west of the country as the Taliban have sought to take three key cities.
The attack took place in the wealthy Sherpur neighbourhood, located in a section of the capital known as the Green Zone, where security is tight.
They better get used to this.
Kabul: As war rages across the countryside, young Afghans are plugging in their earphones and logging into audio-based app Clubhouse to argue with the Taliban and pitch counter-offensive tactics.
Launched in the United States at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform acts as a giant conference call and first found popularity among American tech entrepreneurs as a forum for discussing start-ups and cryptocurrencies.
In a conflict zone, it can have the rare power of connecting ordinary citizens with extremists waging fear and destruction.
China offered a high-profile public stage to the Taliban on Wednesday, declaring that the group rapidly retaking large parts of Afghanistan would play “an important role in the process of peaceful reconciliation and reconstruction” of the country.
Chinese officials began two days of talks with a delegation of Taliban leaders in Tianjin, a coastal city in northeastern China, significantly raising the group’s international stature after steady military gains that have taken advantage of the withdrawal of American and NATO combat forces from Afghanistan.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, called the Taliban “a pivotal military and political force,” but urged their leaders “to hold high the banner of peace talks,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed Thursday that Taliban thugs murdered comedian Nazar Mohammad in southern Afghanistan shortly after a video went viral that showed Mohammad being abducted and beaten.
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.
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.
Driving to Taliban-controlled territory doesn’t take long. Around 30 minutes from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, passing large craters left by roadside bombs, we meet our host: Haji Hekmat, the Taliban’s shadow mayor in Balkh district.
Perfumed and in a black turban, he’s a veteran member of the group, having first joined the militants in the 1990s when they ruled over the majority of the country.
The Taliban have arranged a display of force for us. Lined up on either side of the street are heavily armed men, one carrying a rocket propelled grenade launcher, another an M4 assault rifle captured from US forces. Balkh was once one of the more stable parts of the country; now it’s become one of the most violent.
All that “Nation Building,” all that blood and treasure down the drain. Hooda thunk it in a swell place like Afghanistan?
With former US President Donald J. Trump no longer able to dictate US policy on Afghanistan, the Taliban are exploiting the opportunity to increase their efforts to seize control of the country in spite of the peace accord they signed with the Trump administration last year.
Under the terms of that agreement with the US, the Taliban agreed to negotiate a peaceful resolution of this benighted country’s long-running civil war in return for Washington agreeing to withdraw all its remaining forces. In addition, they agreed to cut their ties with Islamist terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda.
Yet, to judge by recent events in Afghanistan, the Taliban are showing little inclination to abide by the terms of the deal.
At least 30 Taliban fighters have been killed in an explosion at a mosque in Afghanistan during a bomb-making class.
The 209th Shaheen Corps – part of the Afghan National Army – said in a statement that 30 fighters including six foreign nationals who were expert mine makers, had been killed in an explosion on Saturday morning.
The blast happened at a mosque in the village of Qultaq in the Dowlatabad district of Balkh province.
