Afghanistan, Afghanistan news, Afghanistan Taliban news, Taliban in Afghanistan, Afgan Taliban army, Kandahar Afghanistan Taliban, US Taliban, Joe Biden Taliban

Written by Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Taimoor Shah

The Taliban have been invading key cities around Afghanistan for months, threatening to push the country to its tipping point and push the Biden administration into a dead end just as America’s longest war is supposed to be drawing to a close. finish.

Around the northern city of Kunduz, despite the fierce winter cold, the Taliban have seized outposts and military bases, using small armed drones to terrorize Afghan troops. In neighboring Pul-i-Khumri, they have seized major roads in a freehold of the city, threatening the main avenues of life in Kabul, the country’s capital.

And here in the city of Kandahar, a historically and politically important foundation and economic center for the south of the country, Taliban fighters have struck the surrounding districts and have come closer to taking the provincial capital than they have. in more than a decade.

The brazen offensive by the Taliban has put the Biden government in a dangerous political bind. Under the agreement reached by President Donald Trump with the Taliban last year, all foreign troops, including the remaining 2,500 US servicemen who support Afghanistan’s beleaguered military and security forces, are scheduled to withdraw by May 1, leaving the country in a particularly precarious state. .

The road connecting Kandahar Airfield and Spin Boldak to Kandahar, Afghanistan, February 1, 2021. (Jim Huylebroek / The New York Times)

If the Biden government respects the withdrawal date, officials and analysts fear that the Taliban could overwhelm what remains of the Afghan security forces and seize control of major cities like Kandahar in an effort for a complete military victory or a Broad surrender of the Afghan government in the ongoing peace negotiations.

But if the United States delays its withdrawal deadline, as recommended by a congressional-appointed panel on February 3, the Taliban would likely consider the 2020 agreement with the United States void, likely prompting further attacks on US and US troops. NATO, and could bring about the demise of the United States goes further into the war to defend the Afghan forces, against whom the Taliban could still retaliate vigorously.

Men sit in front of a shrine being built in Kandahar, Afghanistan for General Abdul Raziq, the police chief who was killed by a Taliban infiltrator in 2018, January 31, 2021 (Jim Huylebroek / The New York Times).

“The threat of military victories by the Taliban, especially in an area as symbolic and strategic as Kandahar, makes it difficult for the Biden administration to take the risks of finalizing a troop withdrawal,” said Andrew Watkins, senior analyst on Afghanistan for the international crisis. Group, a Brussels-based dispute resolution organization. “Withdrawing could be politically impossible if Kandahar were on the evening news.”

In Panjwai, a district neighboring the city of Kandahar, the thud of artillery marked a recent warm winter afternoon, indicating the proximity of the Taliban to their populated center.

At the edge of the district, a lonely police post wedged into the rock overlooked what was now Taliban territory. One officer’s head was bandaged from a roadside bomb blast, another wore a gauze sling under his uniform, propping up a shoulder wounded by a sniper’s bullet.

“They are still working here; We cannot replace them because we do not have enough forces, ”said Safiullah Khan, the police officer in charge. “Our commanders steal our fuel, food and supplies.”

A police and military post overlooking the Arghandab Valley in Afghanistan, Jan.31, 2021 (Jim Huylebroek / The New York Times).

During an offensive in the fall, the Taliban seized swaths of territory and then mostly held on despite attempts by Afghan security forces and US airstrikes to dislodge them.

Taliban commanders told tribal officials in the district that the insurgent group deliberately stopped before taking Panjwai, said Haji Mahmood Noor, the district mayor, because they were told to wait and watch the next phase of the negotiations unfold. peace.

“When the trees turn green, the situation will get worse,” Noor said, referring to spring, when the Taliban can move more at ease under the cover of flourishing foliage.

Shop windows smashed by a Taliban mortar in Afghanistan’s Arghandab district, Jan.31, 2021 (Jim Huylebroek / The New York Times).

The near collapse of Panjwai and the growing threat to the city of Kandahar are partly a consequence of the 2018 death of General Abdul Raziq, who had been the province’s chief of police since 2011. Known for resolving disputes with threats and bloody retaliation , and accused of many due to rights abuses, Raziq also used his close relationship with the United States military to keep Kandahar province mostly safe for years.

After Raziq’s death at the hands of a Taliban infiltrator, his brother, General Tadeen Khan, was appointed general overnight and took over as chief of police, but his lack of military experience meant he was largely part disconnected and absent from his functions. While their officers levied taxes and abused their residents with little oversight, the Taliban forged alliances with local tribal leaders and paid low-level police officers to leave their posts before the fall offensive, local and provincial officials said.

Haji Mahmood Noor, district mayor of Panjwai in the district governor’s office in Panjwai, Afghanistan, January 30, 2021 (Jim Huylebroek / The New York Times).

When the Taliban entered the districts around Kandahar, there was little opposition to the police. Many outposts were already barely staffed, Noor and other local officials said. Some Afghan government officials refuted that accusation and said they withdrew out of fear. Others said they didn’t know why they pulled out at all.

Tadeen rejected any accusations of corruption and abuse and denied that his police forces were withering in Kandahar.

“The Taliban have no more power,” he said from his well-guarded compound in Kandahar city. “Afghan forces can defend themselves.”

The deteriorating situation in Kandahar is a broader reflection of security throughout the country. The Taliban have spent the past few months capturing military bases and police posts and setting up road checkpoints near capitals in provinces such as Helmand and Uruzgan in the south, and Kunduz and Baghlan in the north.

Although the tactics of the Taliban vary from region to region, the results are often the same: increased taxes on the roads, morale falling among Afghan security forces with diminishing support from the United States, and fear growing among those living in once-safe areas.

The aim of the Taliban is to force the Afghan government to comply with its peace terms. In Qatar, Taliban leaders have demanded the release of some 7,000 more prisoners and the establishment of an interim government, two requests that Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s president, has so far rejected.

“The Taliban seem to believe that applying this pressure, organizing their fighters to potentially attack Kandahar and other urban centers, will pressure the United States to withdraw, or otherwise,” Watkins said. “Strategic logic could have the opposite effect.”

To prepare for a possible multi-front strike should the United States stay past the May 1 deadline, the Pentagon has requested additional military options, including an increase in American troops or a commitment to more air support. of the United States Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle. East and Afghanistan, according to two US officials. Whether these requests will be granted depends on the next move by the Biden administration, which is expected to be announced in the coming weeks once a review of the current deal in place with the Taliban is completed.

The unrest has already delayed the handover of Kandahar Airfield, a sprawling US base east of the capital, to Afghan forces in recent months. For now, a small detachment of US and NATO troops remains to support the struggling Afghan forces, according to a US military official.

With the police force for the most part in ruins, the Afghan army and commandos have moved to Kandahar, beginning their operations in November to retake territory that was later retaken by the Taliban. Command officers said their forces had been depleted by frequent orders to replace their police counterparts.

In the nearby district of Arghandab, the site of the Taliban’s northern offensive in Kandahar city, army leaders and police officers say they are understaffed and their pleas for support have not been heard by Kabul officials. .

An outpost was using two armored vehicles likely left over from the Soviet invasion of the 1980s to defend against Taliban positions on the riverbanks.

In December, the Afghan army abandoned about 200 checkpoints in Kandahar, according to a report by the US government watchdog released on February 1. The collapse of some military bases in the fall provided the Taliban with treasures of military equipment and ammunition, including several pieces of heavy artillery.

The Afghan security forces also face portions of a population that have more faith in the Taliban than in the government. By capturing new territory, the Taliban installed their own administrative services, explained Lal Mohammad, 23, a wheat and grape farmer who now lives behind the Taliban’s front line in Panjwai.

Insurgent fighters smashed smartphones and banned music, imposed a curfew, dug defensive tunnels between people’s homes and used empty rooms in them as fighting positions. Roadside bombs are everywhere, he said. But land disputes and petty crime are well managed, compared to the corrupt bureaucracy of the Afghan government, Mohammad said.

“People like it,” Mohammad said, adding that he just wants someone to take over Kandahar so that people can get back to their lives.

These feelings are common in more rural areas of Afghanistan. But the incompetence of the Afghan government and widespread corruption have brought that attitude to the doorstep of one of the most populous cities in the country.

“The government,” said Mohammad, “has failed.”

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