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Just two days ago the experts were predicting Kabul would fall in a matter of a few months or several weeks. Two days later it's a done deal. After many years of western military training and equipping the Afghan militia, it couldn't even slow the pace of the Taliban onslaught. How disgraceful! All Afghan women will have to go back to being invisible again.
US Embassy warns Americans in Kabul to take shelter, says airport
reportedly UNDER FIRE amid hasty evacuation of western missions
15 Aug, 2021 16:14 / Updated 56 seconds ago
Stills taken from a video being shared online appears to show people being evacuated in a
C-17 Globemaster III at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. © Twitter
The US Embassy in Kabul has warned Americans heading for the city’s airport to shelter in place instead, stating that the airport was “taking fire.” The airport is packed with foreign workers hurrying out of Afghanistan.
“The security situation in Kabul is changing quickly, including at the airport,” read a security alert from the embassy on Sunday. “There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing US citizens to shelter in place.”
The embassy had for days been urging Americans in Afghanistan to leave the country, offering them assistance in purchasing plane tickets out. As the Taliban encircled the Afghan capital on Sunday, helicopters ferried embassy staff to the airport, where the US’ diplomatic mission would be rehoused.
The evacuation took place under the protection of thousands of American troops, ordered in by President Joe Biden as the Taliban advanced faster than the US could get its staff out.
Several other nations have also moved their diplomatic corps to the airport, including France, which relocated on Sunday evening.
Hamid Karzai Int'l A, Kabul
Surrender!
For any Americans who failed to make it to the airport already, the future is uncertain. An alternately-worded alert seen by reporters states that “The US Embassy in Afghanistan has suspended consular operations effective immediately.” Americans are warned: “Do not come to the Embassy or airport at this time."
“The [US] ambassador has now left the embassy compound and is at the airport, along with the American flag,” CBS News’ David Martin reported around the time of the alert. However, Martin noted that some Americans remain left behind. With the airport their only lifeline to the outside world, and with the Embassy telling them not to travel to the airport, their route out remains unclear.
US troops are reportedly on the ground keeping the airport open, and video footage taken nearby shows crowds of Afghans, some allegedly freed prisoners, streaming toward the airport, suggesting that many will try to enter the facility to leave the country.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated on Sunday evening that he had been in touch with alliance leaders, and that NATO was “helping keep Kabul airport open to facilitate and coordinate evacuations.”
However, a NATO official later told Reuters that all commercial flights from the airport had been suspended, and that only military flights would be permitted.
Taliban ‘enter presidential palace’ in Kabul after Afghan president leaves country,
say NO transitional government on the table
15 Aug, 2021 15:53 / Updated 19 minutes ago
Taliban commanders claim they took control of the presidential palace in Kabul shortly after President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan. The group says it expects a total handover of power.
Taliban militants entered the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday, after a whirlwind advance that saw them take most of the country’s provinces and cities – some without firing a shot – on the heels of the US military withdrawal. Amid negotiations to surrender, US-backed President Ashraf Ghani departed shortly afterwards, reportedly bound for Tajikistan.
By Sunday evening, Taliban commanders told Reuters they had entered Ghani’s presidential palace and taken control of the building. Their claim has not been confirmed by Ghani’s government.
Though Taliban leaders and representatives of Ghani’s government had been participating in peace talks in Qatar for several months, a power-sharing deal had evidently not been reached before Ghani took off. Two officials from the Islamist group told Reuters there would be no transitional government, and it expects a complete handover of power.
Outside the palace, the Taliban moved quickly to assert control over the Afghan capital. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the group, claimed on Sunday night that his men had “conquered” 11 districts of the city and were providing “security.” Amid reports that the group would soon declare an “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” US and other foreign diplomats and staff thronged Kabul airport in a bid to flee the country.
Taliban vows to respect rights of Afghan women, will allow access to
work & education provided hijabs are worn – spokesman
15 Aug, 2021 12:27
Afghan women walk through Panjwaii town, Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, October 27, 2007.
© REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
A spokesperson for the Taliban has promised that Afghan women will not be deprived of work opportunities or education when the militant group comes to power, on condition that they remain veiled in public.
ie invisible!
Suhail Shaheen told the BBC on Sunday that the group, which subscribes to Sharia law, would respect the rights of women. Under the new government that is being formed, women will be allowed to leave home alone, work, and have access to education, so long as they wear hijabs, Shaheen explained. He insisted that women had nothing to fear from the Taliban and that the group would protect their honor.
As long as they remain invisible!
The current US-backed government under President Ashraf Ghani is expected to step down after the collapse of the Afghan National Army led to Kabul being surrounded by Taliban forces. Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said earlier on Sunday that there would be a “peaceful transfer of power” to a transitional government.
In recent days, news agencies have published stories claiming that the Taliban has already started to crackdown on women’s rights in territories under their control. One report alleged that a group of women who worked at a bank in the southern city of Kandahar were instructed to remain at home. Another story claimed that in some villages under Taliban control, girls and women between the ages of 16-44 were being selected as brides for Taliban fighters. A Taliban spokesman denied the story as a fabrication.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said he was “deeply disturbed” by accounts of women being mistreated in areas seized by the Taliban, adding that he feared the “hard-won rights of Afghan women” would be “ripped away” by the militant group.
The Taliban imposed a severe form of Islamic law during its rule between 1996-2001, resulting in the stoning and flogging of women accused of indecency.
Indecencies like being raped by a man.
The plight of Afghan women has been highlighted by critics of the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, many commentators have questioned whether extending the United States’ nearly 20-year presence in the country would actually change the long-term prospects for women and girls in the war-torn nation.
VIDEOS show Taliban fighters lounging in luxurious ex-home of US-backed
warlord as pundits blame grift for collapse of Afghan army
15 Aug, 2021 09:09 / Updated 4 hours ago
The Taliban has shown off a lavish home that belonged to Afghan army marshal and close US ally Abdul Rashid Dostum, prompting pundits to opine that the decadent abode illustrated why the country’s military had wilted so quickly.
In videos resembling an episode of MTV’s iconic house tour program ‘Cribs’, Taliban fighters can be seen lounging in the ostentatious interior of former vice president Dostum’s residence, believed to be in Sheberghan, the capital of Jowzjan province.
Dostum, a seasoned warlord who aligned himself with the US-backed Northern Alliance during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, had traveled to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to defend it from a Taliban onslaught. But he reportedly fled the city after government forces handed over their weapons and equipment to the Taliban as part of a “cowardly plot,” Atta Mohammad Noor, the former governor of Balkh province, told the media. Noor, who was commanding local militiamen when the city’s defenses collapsed, said both he and Dostum had escaped and were safe.
However, what Dostum left behind both amused and angered social media observers. Footage shows cross-legged militants relaxing in overstuffed armchairs as others admire the mansion’s glitzy decor. One clip shows them examining what appears to be a gold tea set.
General Dostum and his innumerable medals. Notice his hat is not pointing in the same direction as his head.
The videos represent a “searing propaganda victory” for the Taliban, one pundit argued, noting that Dostum was a “near-mythic” figure who had once controlled vast swathes of Afghanistan.
Others expressed dismay that the Taliban fighters had enjoyed a “tea party” in a “castle” allegedly built using US tax dollars.
“Whilst General Dostum lived in opulence, many of his soldiers went unpaid. One of the reasons for the army’s collapse,” British politician and former soldier Henry Bolton complained.
Political pundit and MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan said the footage served as a reminder that the “corrupt warlords we allied with in Afghanistan all these years have been pretty awful.”
During his years of cooperation with the United States, Dostum has faced repeated accusations of corruption and human rights abuses. He spent part of 2018 in exile, following accusations that he had ordered a political opponent to be sexually assaulted.
The Taliban didn’t linger long in Dostum’s sumptuous lodgings, however, beginning an assault on Kabul on Sunday.
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