As one Afghan province after another comes under the control of the Islamic terrorist militia Taliban, U.S. intelligence officials warn that the capital Kabul could fall within 90 days.
“The latest U.S. military intelligence assessment suggests Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days and that, if current trends hold, the Taliban could gain full control of the country within a few months,” the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
The U.S. intelligence assessment comes as the Taliban took over the tenth provincial capital since President Joe Biden ordered the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops by September.
On Thursday, Taliban fighters entered the strategic city of Ghazni, located some 90 miles from Kabul. “Taking Ghazni is thought to increase the likelihood that the Taliban could eventually aim to take Kabul itself,” The BBC noted.
Reports came out about heavy fighting around Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city. News on Wednesday suggests that the Taliban forces now control parts of the city.
The AP reported the Taliban’s rapid advance through Afghanistan:
The Taliban captured a strategic provincial capital near Kabul on Thursday, the 10th the insurgents have taken in a weeklong sweep across Afghanistan just weeks before the end of the American military mission there.Seizing Ghazni cuts off a crucial highway linking the Afghan capital with the country’s southern provinces, which similarly find themselves under assault as part of an insurgent push some 20 years after U.S. and NATO troops invaded and ousted the Taliban government.While Kabul itself isn’t directly under threat, the loss of Ghazni tightens the grip of a resurgent Taliban estimated to now hold some two-thirds of the nation, and thousands of people have fled their homes. (…)On Thursday, the militants raised their white flags imprinted with an Islamic proclamation of faith over the city of Ghazni, just 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Kabul. Mohammad Arif Rahmani, a lawmaker from Ghazni, said the city had fallen to the insurgents. Ghazni provincial council member Amanullah Kamrani also told The Associated Press that but added that the two bases outside of the city remain held by government forces.Militants crowded onto one seized Humvee and drove down one main road in Ghazni, with the golden dome of a mosque near the governor’s office visible behind them, yelling: “God is great!” The insurgents, cradling their rifles, later gathered at one roundabout for an impromptu speech by a commander. One militant carried a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.Kamrani alleged that Ghazni’s provincial governor and police chief made a deal with the Taliban to flee after their surrender. Taliban video and photos purported to show the governor’s convoy passing by Taliban fighters unstopped as part of the deal.
The 300,000-strong U.S. and NATO-trained Afghan National Army has failed to put up a real fight. In the face of the Taliban onslaught, many of them have dropped their weapons and fled. “Taliban fighters carrying M-16 rifles and driving Humvees and Ford pickup trucks donated by the Americans rolled through the streets of the [provincial] capital [city of Farah],” The Times of Israel reported on Thursday.
Instead of fighting to the bitter end, many Afghan soldiers are seeking refuge in neighboring countries. “Stepped up Taliban attacks in recent weeks have forced hundreds of pro-Afghan government forces to escape to Tajikistan, Iran, China and Pakistan, enabling the insurgents to seize landlocked Afghanistan’s strategic border crossings with these neighbors,” the Voice of America reported last month.
Twenty years after the fall of the Afghan Taliban, the jihadi group has pledged to restore the “Islamic Emirate” in the country. If former President Donald Trump oversaw the destruction of the Islamic Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, President Biden’s tenure might witness the reestablishment of another haven for the worldwide jihad.
Nearly four years after the U.S.-backed forces destroyed the Islamic State by liberating their capital Raqqa, Islamic fanatics are on the verge of declaring another jihadi state.
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