The Taliban on Sunday seized power in Afghanistan as insurgents flooded into the Afghan capital, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to flee the country and marking the collapse of the Afghan government and the end of the 20-year American campaign to rebuild Afghanistan.
Afghan security forces offered no resistance to the heavily armed Taliban fighters, who amassed on Kabul’s outskirts and surrounded the city early on Sunday. The Taliban initially claimed that they would not enter the city until a transitional government was formed. However, the militant group quickly reversed its position and entered Kabul, saying that someone had to maintain control as police and security forces had deserted their stations.
In addition, social media users and news agencies widely shared images and videos of the Taliban insurgents entering the abandoned Afghan presidential palace. Al Jazeera reported that leaders of the group, surrounded by armed fighters, addressed the media from the country’s seat of power.
A Taliban official stated that the group plans to announce the restoration of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), the country’s formal name under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s official spokesperson and member of its negotiations team, told The Associated Press that the group wants to form an “open, inclusive Islamic government.”
The Islamic Emirate has ordered its Mujahideen and once again instructs them that no one is allowed to enter anyone's house without permission. Life, property and honor of none shall be harmed but must be protected by the Mujahedeen.
— Suhail Shaheen. محمد سهیل شاهین (@suhailshaheen1) August 16, 2021
Shaheen tweeted that the Taliban welcomes all officials who had previously worked for the Afghan government to “serve” the nation. “IEA has its door open for all those who previously worked and helped the invaders or are now standing in the ranks of the corrupt Kabul Adm. and already announced an amnesty,” he said.
The spokesperson also urged the fighters to “pay utmost attention to the treasury, public facilities, offices, equipment of government offices, parks, roads, bridges” as they are the “trust and property of the nation.” Shaheen warned the “Mujahideen” that no “personal tampering and negligence should be done with them [infrastructure].” He asked the fighters to “strictly” guard them.
While there were talks of the Taliban setting up a transitional government to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, the militants confirmed to Reuters that there would be no transitional government in Afghanistan, and a complete handover of power is expected. However, the government’s acting Interior Affairs Minister, Abdul Sattar Mirzakawal, said power would be transferred to a transitional administration.
The Taliban’s reassurances and claims to form an inclusive government have done very little to calm Afghan civilians, who rushed to the Kabul airport to flee the country. Pictures showed citizens of Kabul crowded in ATMs, and news reports indicate that fights broke out at ATMs as tempers flared.
Gunfire heard near Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport as crowd of Afghan civilians rushes toward terminal pic.twitter.com/pMMPoBA89V
— Factal News (@factal) August 16, 2021
News of a major prison break in the city led to further panic among crowds. By nightfall, warnings circulated on social media asking people to stay inside and lock their doors.
There was also widespread frustration over Ashraf Ghani’s swift departure from the country with several cabinet members. “The former President of Afghanistan has left Afghanistan […] He has left the nation in this state [for that] God will hold him to account,” Abdullah Abdullah, the Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said in a video posted to his Facebook page.
An Afghan politician told Al Jazeera that Ghani’s decision to flee the country was a “disgrace” and accused him of “lying to the people this whole time [and] of keeping the Afghan people in the dark.”
The official Twitter handle of the Afghan Embassy in India was also reportedly hacked on Monday as it blamed Ghani of “fleeing with the crooks” and called him a “traitor.”
Sunday’s events led the US to airlift personnel from its embassy in Kabul, drawing comparisons to people fleeing from the US embassy rooftops in Saigon, Vietnam, almost 50 years ago, as the city fell to the North Vietnamese forces. Earlier, US President Joe Biden had announced the deployment of an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation of more than 10,000 US citizens in the country.
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed comparisons to the fall of Saigon. “This is manifestly not Saigon,” Blinken told ABC News on Sunday, adding that “We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful.”
Nevertheless, not many agree with Blinken’s view. Critics have argued that the US, which poured billions into the Afghan reconstruction efforts, has failed in nation-building and establishing a democracy in Afghanistan. Others blamed Washington’s “rushed, poorly planned, and chaotic withdrawal” from the country for the Taliban success.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, India, Iran, and Canada also rushed to evacuate their citizens from the country.
The turn of events in Kabul was much faster than what was anticipated by the United States (US). Last week, the American intelligence agencies predicted that Kabul would most likely fall to the Taliban within 30 to 90 days. The Taliban’s capture of Kabul comes after the group took control of provincial capitals and several parts of the country in a week-long military blitz across Afghanistan. The group launched its offensive after US President Joe Biden announced the withdraw of troops by September.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda terrorists. Washington accused the Taliban of harbouring Al-Qaeda militants, and the US forces quickly toppled the Taliban government. The US military then set out on a long process of dismantling the Taliban militarily and rebuilding democratic institutions in Afghanistan.
It is estimated that over 2,000 US troops and more than 65,000 Afghan military and security personnel lost their lives in the brutal war. The fall of Kabul marks the end of the US’ longest war and the Taliban’s rise to power, in what could spell disaster for the gains made in democracy and human rights in Afghanistan over the last two decades.