Amidst the concern of human rights organizations and civilians
The Taliban's progress towards controlling all of Afghanistan is accelerating
"Taliban" militants overran a series of areas in northern Afghanistan last weekend.
archival
President Biden is in a hurry to get rid of Afghanistan and its troubles.
Father
picture
The Taliban's advance toward control of Afghan territory is accelerating, and over the past weekend their fighters swept across a string of districts in northern Afghanistan, and nearly 1,000 government soldiers fled in a desperate bid for their lives through the neighboring Badakhshan province of Tajikistan.
This was the third wave of flight towards Tajikistan in just three days, and the fifth in two weeks in an area that was previously a stronghold of resistance against the Taliban.
The border region in northern Afghanistan provides a worrying signal about what lies ahead.
Tajik President Emomali Rahman ordered the mobilization of about 20,000 soldiers on the border, while Reuters news agency reported that Tajikistan, which is the poorest country in Central Asia, is studying the possibility of establishing refugee camps in the event of an influx of Afghan civilians.
The Tajik authorities left the border passages open, knowing that they are under the control of the "Taliban" from the side of Afghanistan.
Since the United States announced its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the "Taliban" movement, which was expelled from Kabul 20 years ago, has begun to advance throughout Afghanistan, especially in rural areas.
It is believed that the Taliban now controls about a third of the country, and is fighting for control of more.
"The situation is bad," Ahmed Javid, a member of the Badakhshan Provincial Council, told my fellow journalists. He said most of the province had fallen into the hands of the "Taliban", and that its capital, Faizabad, had become besieged by the movement's fighters.
The authorities in Kabul told the media that they would launch a counter-attack against the Taliban.
The US military has evacuated the huge Bagram Air Base, where tens of thousands of US soldiers have worked since Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001. It was also a detention center where US soldiers and CIA interrogators tortured prisoners, according to reports from human rights groups.
Departing under cover of darkness
US officials announced their departure from the base a few days ago, after which Afghan authorities took the journalists to the base. According to Afghan officials, the last US soldiers left the base under cover of darkness and did not inform the new Afghan commander of the base of their departure, which allowed the thieves to steal the base. US forces left millions of items behind, including thousands of civilian cars and hundreds of armored vehicles.
The chaos that has spread over the past few months has alarmed observers.
Humanitarian organizations warn of a new refugee crisis if the conflict erupts again, and human rights groups fear that freedoms and women's rights will be lost in Taliban-controlled areas.
As for minority communities, especially the Shiite Hazara sect, they may face a fierce response from the Taliban.
"We want to get an education and uphold the law, but the terrorists want to eliminate our sect," university student Abu Latif, 22, whose sister was killed in a bomb attack on a school in Kabul's Hazara neighborhood, told a fellow journalist.
Kabul Bacillus
Still, the capture of the fortified Kabul is highly unlikely. But neighboring countries and the United States are counting on a stalled political process between the militias and the Afghan government to start life in the coming months. Despite the progress of the "Taliban" forces in all areas, they are making it clear that they are ready to return to negotiations. "The process of peace negotiations will be accelerated in the next few days," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.
The content of these negotiations with the Taliban is not yet known, given that officials in Kabul are still waiting to see written proposals that the movement will present on its view of peace and reconciliation. During this time, the security situation appears to be deteriorating. A few days ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed his concern about the change in the battlefield equation in northern Afghanistan, and expressed his concern that the ISIS-linked factions were achieving victories there. He blamed these developments "on the irresponsible behavior of some officials in Kabul on the one hand, and the "rapid NATO withdrawal" on the other hand.
It seems that President Biden is in a hurry to get rid of Afghanistan, and during a press conference held on the fourth of July, a journalist asked him about the Americans' withdrawal from Afghanistan, so he sighed a little, then answered him, "I want you to ask me about happy things," but the chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission Scheherazade Akbar said, "As an Afghan woman, I don't have the luxury of talking about happy things, but I have to worry about the dangers."
Ishan Tharoor ■ Corner writer for The Washington Post
• Humanitarian organizations warn of a new refugee crisis if the conflict erupts again. Human rights groups fear that freedoms and women's rights will be lost in Taliban-controlled areas.
• The capture of the fortified Kabul is still highly unlikely. But neighboring countries and the United States are counting on a stalled political process between the militias and the Afghan government to start life in the coming months.
• President Biden is in a hurry to get rid of Afghanistan, and during a press conference he held on the fourth of July, a journalist asked him about the Americans' withdrawal from Afghanistan, so he sighed a little, then replied, "I want you to ask me about happy things," but the chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Scheherazade Akbar said, "As an Afghan woman, I don't have the luxury of talking about happy things."
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news