In 7-day march to power, Taliban scored stunning string of victories

AP — In simply seven days, any lingering goals of a free Afghanistan died.

As final week dawned, many clung to hope that the Taliban might be held again, although key commerce routes had been seized, border crossings overtaken and swaths of distant areas clutched. However then, in only a week, militants gained metropolis after metropolis, toppled the federal government and grabbed the grand prize of Kabul.

On its streets, adverts with ladies in Western garments had been lined in white paint, whereas males in denims and T-shirts rushed to vary into conventional tunics. On the US embassy, workers raced to destroy paperwork as helicopters shuttled away diplomats.

Fingers as soon as splashed with purple ink — residue of voting, a badge of democracy — now clenched tickets searching for exit, and franticly punched ATMs to withdraw life financial savings.

All in seven days.

“The one factor individuals are fascinated about is the way to survive right here or the way to escape,” stated Aisha Khurram, a 22-year-old headed to class Sunday at Kabul College earlier than being turned again, uncertain whether or not she would ever be capable of return, or if females will as soon as once more be barred from college. “The one factor now we have is our God.”

Even for a rustic scarred by generations of warfare, it was an astonishing week.

A whole bunch of individuals collect exterior the worldwide airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 17, 2021. (AP Photograph)

Monday

The week dawns with information that insurgents claimed the northern cities of Aybak and Sar-e Pul.

In some districts, pro-government forces give up with out a combat. In others, the place firefights sprout, determined residents are compelled from their properties, trudging tons of of kilometers on foot in exodus.

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“We walked with slippers, didn’t have the possibility to put on our footwear,” says Bibi Ruqia, who left northern Takhar province for Kabul after a bomb hit her home. “We needed to escape.”

The autumn of Aybak and Sar-e Pul pleases the Taliban fighters; afterward, they’re seen on video relishing their victory exterior one of many authorities buildings they now managed.

However People and the Afghan troops they spent years coaching had causes to take coronary heart: The cities had been simply the fourth and fifth provincial capitals to crumble. Twenty-nine extra remained.

Taliban in Aybak metropolis, the capital of Samangan province in Northern Afghanistan. Taliban fighters exterior of the Afghan intelligence Service( NDS) provincial Headquarters pic.twitter.com/8UOVZNtTY8

— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 9, 2021

Tuesday

Within the glowing Qatari capital of Doha, American envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrives with a warning to the Taliban: Any good points made by drive can be met with worldwide condemnation and guarantee their standing as world pariahs.

The effectiveness of the diplomacy is diminished, although, by Taliban forces’ push into the western metropolis of Farah. They’re seen in entrance of the provincial governor’s workplace.

As the US’ self-imposed August 31 deadline to withdraw its troops nears, the Taliban steadily good points floor whereas tons of of hundreds are displaced. Kabul’s parks swell with the newly homeless, whereas the United Nations releases tallies of civilian deaths and accidents they know would solely develop.

“The true figures,” says UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, “can be a lot increased.”

US peace envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad arrives for talks in Doha, Qatar, on August 10, 2021. (AP Photograph/Hussein Sayed)

Wednesday

Three extra provincial capitals fall in Badakhshan, Baghlan and Farah, giving the Taliban management over two-thirds of the nation. With these areas misplaced, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rushes to Balkh province, already surrounded by Taliban-controlled land, to safe assist from warlords linked to allegations of atrocities and corruption. However he’s determined to push again the insurgents.

On the White Home, President Joe Biden indicators off on a plan to mount a full-scale evacuation of Afghans searching for to flee their nation after a brand new intelligence evaluation makes clear the nation’s authorities and navy are unwilling or unable to mount any important resistance. Afghan particular forces, left to select up a lot of the burden of defending a number of fronts, are stretched more and more skinny.

Because the Taliban’s drive widens, they emerge in additional and components of the nation carrying M-16 rifles and driving Humvees and Ford pickup vehicles, tools paid for by American taxpayers.

Taliban fighters are seen inside the town of Farah, capital of Farah province southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, August 10, 2021. (AP Photograph/Mohammad Asif Khan)

Thursday

Any hope that the Taliban’s successes could be restricted to Afghanistan’s extra distant reaches vanish, because the nation’s second- and third-largest cities are captured.

With Kandahar and Herat, a dozen provincial capitals are actually within the group’s grasp. And with safety quickly deteriorating, the US reverses course, saying 3,000 troops can be despatched to assist evacuate the embassy.

Zahra, a 26-year-old resident of Herat, is on her approach to dinner along with her mom and three sisters when she sees folks working and heard gunshots blast. “The Taliban are right here!” folks scream.

She spent most of her life in Afghanistan the place ladies bought an training and ladies dared to dream of careers and she or he had spent the previous 5 years working with nonprofit organizations to press for gender equality. Now, her final title is shrouded to keep away from making her a goal, and she or he hunkers down indoors along with her household.

“How can it’s potential for me as a lady who has labored so exhausting and tried to be taught and advance, to now have to cover myself and keep at dwelling?” she asks.

Taliban fighters lastly break by means of at Herat after two weeks of assaults. As they transfer in, witnesses inform of Taliban members as soon as detained within the metropolis’s jail are noticed shifting freely in its streets.

Taliban fighters patrol inside the town of Kandahar, southwest Afghanistan, August 15, 2021. (AP Photograph/Sidiqullah Khan)

Friday

Because the Taliban push ever additional into the nation they as soon as once more search to rule, experiences of revenge killings trickle out: A comic. A authorities media chief. Others.

Indicators of a brand new day in Afghanistan proliferate.

In Herat, two alleged looters are paraded by means of the streets with black make-up smeared on their faces, reminders of the unsparing model of Islamic regulation the Taliban has imposed. In Kandahar, militants commandeer a radio station that had beamed Pashto and Indian songs into residents’ properties, music banned by the Taliban. The tunes cease, abruptly. And the station is renamed Voice of Sharia.

Militants full their sweep of the nation’s south, taking 4 extra provincial capitals. Amongst them is Helmand province, the place American, British and different allied NATO forces fought a few of their bloodiest battles. A whole bunch of Western troops died there throughout the battle. Now, a lot of their households ask why.

A Taliban flag flies from the clocktower of the Herat provincial official workplace, in Herat, Afghanistan, west of Kabul, on August 14, 2021. (AP Photograph/Hamed Sarfarazi)

Saturday

Ghani delivers a televised speech during which he vows not to surrender achievements of the 20 years because the Taliban had been toppled. However the group pushes ahead, notching extra victories.

Alongside the Pakistani border, the provinces of Paktika and Kunar fall. Within the north, Faryab province is taken. And within the nation’s heart, Daykundi is captured. Greatest of all, Mazar-e-Sharif — the nation’s fourth-largest metropolis, a closely defended swath that authorities forces had pledged to defend — is now below Taliban management.

The unfolding catastrophe prompts an announcement from President Joe Biden, standing agency in his choice to complete the withdrawal of US forces that started below Donald Trump.

“I used to be the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats,” he stated. “I might not, and won’t, move this battle onto a fifth.”

In Kabul, lengthy strains type exterior the worldwide airport. Afghans searching for to flee push carts loaded with carpets, televisions and mementos as they waited hours to enter the terminal.

Passengers stroll to the departures terminal of Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2021 (AP Photograph/Rahmat Gul)

On regular days, Afghans in enterprise fits and conventional costume mingle beside tattooed navy contractors in wraparound sun shades and help employees from throughout the globe. Now, the panicked plenty fill the airport, scrambling to go away.

Farid Ahmad Younusi deserted his Kandahar contracting agency for an opportunity to flee. Every thing he constructed, he says, now seemed to be misplaced, and militants had been trying to find him.

“Taliban have the whole lot that I labored for over the previous 20 years,” he says.

In sight of the airport, the mountains ringing the capital rise within the distance because the partitions appear to shut in. As Saturday wears on, information arrives of latest Taliban wins.

Simply south of the capital, Logar province falls. To the north, insurgents take Mihterlam, reportedly with out a combat. Members of the Taliban are reported within the Char Asyab district, simply 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Kabul.

Town’s destiny appears all however sealed.

Sunday

The Taliban seize Jalalabad, the final main metropolis apart from the capital, and a string of victories follows. The capitals of Maidan Wardak, Khost, Kapisa and Parwan provinces, in addition to the nation’s final government-held border put up falls to militants, and Afghan forces at Bagram Air Base, dwelling to a jail housing 5,000 inmates, give up.

Insurgents had no air drive and simply days earlier had no main metropolis. They had been far outnumbered by Afghan troops, who had been educated by the American navy, essentially the most well-funded and strongest on the planet. And but, the unattainable is now true: The capital of Kabul and its 5 million residents is theirs.

Helicopters whirr. Smoke rises. The American flag is lowered on the embassy.

Ghani, who hours earlier urged his folks not to surrender, has now fled himself, his deserted palace occupied by closely armed fighters, his title cursed by his personal countrymen.

“They tied our arms from behind and offered the nation,” says Protection Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.

A US Chinook helicopter flies close to the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021 (AP Photograph/Rahmat Gul)

Within the US, Biden’s CIA director cuts brief a overseas journey to return to Washington. Others within the administration reject comparisons to the autumn of Saigon at the same time as many discover the resemblance unattainable to disregard. With preparations underway to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 assaults that drove the US to battle, the highest American basic warns of an increase in terrorist threats to return.

Whiplash over the sheer velocity of Afghanistan’s fall jars these in seats of energy.

“You wish to consider that trillions of {dollars} and 20 years of funding provides as much as one thing,” says Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Biden ally and member of the Senate International Relations Committee.

Evening falls with Taliban fighters deployed throughout the capital. Deserted police posts are claimed. And on practically empty streets, males carry the black-and-white flag of the Taliban.

Their victory is full.