Afghanistan’s second largest city falls to Taliban

CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward reported a sense of desperate calm in Kabul tonight following the Taliban’s capture of Kandahar and its rapid advance towards the capital city. 

“It’s calm and the situation is relatively stable but it’s incredibly tense,” Ward said.

She also described a “desperation many people are feeling… on the ground as the US really starts to pull the rip cord.”

“I spoke to one official earlier who said to me, ‘do you hear the sound of that silence? It’s the sound of people packing, packing to go because there is such desperate uncertainty,’” said Ward, reporting from Kabul.

The Taliban has taken control of 17 provincial capitals since last Friday, making large territorial gains in the north of the country, which has traditionally been an anti-Taliban stronghold. 

These are the territories now under their control:

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Friday said the Defense Department does not believe that Kabul is “in an imminent threat environment,” but Kirby acknowledged that the Taliban appears to be trying to isolate Kabul.

CNN reported earlier that according to one diplomatic source, one intelligence assessment indicates that Kabul could be isolated by the Taliban within the week, possibly within the next 72 hours.

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria said Afghanistan’s military’s collapse on the battlefield is due to a lack of will to fight rather than a shortage of personnel, training or military resources.

“The Afghan army is not actually fighting… It’s melting away,” Zakaria said today, pointing to a relatively low number of casualties among government forces as the Taliban captures cities across the region.

The Taliban, by contrast, has “tenacity, passion and will,” fueling their rapid advance, despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, Zakaria continued.

“Do they really want to do this?” he asked. “Does the Afghan government have a plan?”

Sweden will reduce the number of staff at its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, due to safety concerns, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde announced on Friday.

“The safety of the staff at the embassy is a top priority,” Linde said in a series of tweets.

While Sweden has decided not to evacuate all staff at this stage, Linde said, “there are well-developed preparations for the evacuation of the embassy staff, which may become relevant at short notice.

Sweden’s announcement follows a spate of withdrawals of staff from embassies in Kabul this week. Earlier on Friday, Norway announced the temporary closure of its embassy, and Switzerland and Denmark announced the evacuation of embassy staff.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby was directly asked if the war in Afghanistan could conclude with a Taliban takeover done with US-made weapons:

“What’s it going to say for a 20-year war in Afghanistan if it ends with the Taliban rolling into Kabul in US-made MRAPs and Humvees and carrying weapons that our allies turned over to them?” a reporter asked him during a press briefing on the security situation in Afghanistan.  

“I can’t see the future,” Kirby said. “And what I can tell you is our troops who deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11 did what they were sent there to do, which is to prevent Afghanistan from being a safe haven for terrorist attacks upon the homeland and to severely degrade the capabilities of groups like al Qaeda.”

“In the process of that effort, a lot of progress was made in Afghanistan, progress which we obviously don’t want to see put at greater risk. Going forward, we’re going to do a couple of things: We’re going to make sure that a terrorist threat can’t emanate from Afghanistan again by maintaining robust over the horizon counterterrorism capabilities in the region. And we’re going to continue to support our Afghan partners, bilaterally, through maintenance support, through financial support, and we’re going to continue to want to see a stable, secure Afghanistan. The other thing I would say is that we want to continue to see that there’s a negotiated political settlement here for governance going forward, so that’s what our focus is on right now,” Kirby continued.  

He was then asked if the Taliban is actually interested in any sort of negotiations.

“I think that’s a question for Taliban leaders to speak to. They have a team in Doha. They have participated in the past in negotiations. Now, whether they’re still interested in that or not, I think it’s for them to speak to. We are still interested in seeing that outcome, and so should the rest of the international community,” Kirby said.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on the Taliban to halt their offensive in Afghanistan.

“I call on the Taliban to immediately halt the offensive, negotiate in good faith in the interest of Afghanistan and its people,” he told reporters Friday.

“I hope that discussions in Doha, Qatar between representatives of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Taliban — supported by the region and the wider international community — will restore the pathway to a negotiated settlement to the conflict. Only an Afghan-led negotiated political settlement can ensure peace,” he added.

At least 241,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the Afghan conflict, and in the last month alone, more than 1,000 people have “been killed or injured from indiscriminate attacks against civilians, notably in Helmand, Kandahar and Herat provinces,” he said.

The US Embassy in Kabul is instructing personnel to destroy sensitive materials as well as items “which could be misused in propaganda efforts,” according to a management notice sent Friday and seen by CNN and described by another source familiar. 

The notice comes as the embassy prepares to withdraw a significant number of diplomats and as the security situation on the ground in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, with one diplomatic source telling CNN that one intelligence assessment indicates that Kabul could be isolated by the Taliban within the week, possibly within the next 72 hours.

The notice said facilities would provide “destruction support” daily and called on personnel to “please take advantage and reduce the amount of sensitive material on the property,” including papers and electronics.

The notice said there would be a variety of means to destroy these materials, including burn bins, disintegrator, incinerator and compacter and heavy duty equipment.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The situation on the ground is incredibly challenging for US diplomats who say that plans are changing by the minute, one diplomat explained to CNN. 

CNN reported on Thursday that the administration is considering relocating the US Embassy from its current location in the capital to the Kabul airport. 

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that while Kabul is not currently in an “imminent threat environment,” it is clear the Taliban is looking to isolate the city.

“Kabul is not, right now, in an imminent threat environment,” said Kirby, speaking at a briefing at the Pentagon. But, “clearly, if you just look at what the Taliban’s been doing, you can see that they are trying to isolate Kabul.” 

When further pressed by a reporter on whether or not the Taliban had already isolated Afghanistan’s capital city, Kirby said he would not “get into intelligence assessment on the battlefield.” 

“Clearly from their actions, clearly they are trying to get Kabul isolated,” he said. “It certainly appears the Taliban is trying to isolate the city.”

Asked whether he believes support to Afghan forces will need to be cut off to keep it from going into Taliban hands, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby stressed that the US is focused on “supporting the Afghans in the field where and when we can” to prevent future threats.

“We’re still supporting the Afghan national security and defense forces. We’re still supporting the Afghan government, the elected government in Kabul and that’s what we’re going to be focused on doing. It would be easy to speculate about what the future of Afghanistan looks like right now, but I think we want to focus on what we are doing,” Kirby said.

“We’re still working on contract support for over the horizon. We’re still making sure we have robust over the horizon counterterrorism capabilities in the region so that we can’t suffer a threat from Afghanistan again,” the official continued.

Kirby decline to speculate on whether the Aug. 31 drawdown of troops would need be be pushed back.

As the Taliban has taken control of more than half of provincial capitals in Afghanistan, Pentagon press secretary Adm. John Kirby said “we are certainly concerned by the speed with which the Taliban has been moving.”

“No outcome has to be inevitable here. I’m not going to speculate about surprise. We’re obviously watching this just like you’re watching this, and seeing it happen in real time. And it’s deeply concerning. It’s, in fact, the deteriorating conditions are a factor — a big factor — in why the President has approved this mission, to help support … the reduction of personnel there in Kabul. So, I mean, we’re adjusting as best we can, given those conditions. And again, this is a moment for the Afghans to unite, the leadership and the military. No outcome has to be inevitable here,” Kirby said.

When asked if the drawdown of forces would be able to be completed by Aug. 31, Kirby said “we’re going to be watching the security situation day by day.”

“What I can tell you is where we are now. Where we are today. And the mission that we’ve been assigned is to support the State Department’s reduction in personnel by the end of the month. And so that’s what we’re focused on. That’s the timeline we’re focused on, and if we need to adjust, either way, left or right, we’ll do that. But we’re going to always be looking at the security conditions in the ground,” Kirby said.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby provided further details today on the emergency deployment of US troops to Kabul, saying three battalions are en route to the region and most should arrive by the end of the weekend.

“I expect that by the end of the weekend, the bulk of the 3,000 that we talked about yesterday will be in place,” he said today at a briefing. “Probably not all. But the bulk.”

The group headed to Afghanistan is composed of of a Marine battalion that was already pre-staged in the region, another Marine infantry battalion from a Marine expeditionary unit and a US Army infantry battalion, he said.

Kirby went on to say the military operation in the area had already started.

“The operation has begun,” he added. “The movement of forces to Kabul has begun.”

Switzerland will withdraw its three remaining staff in Kabul “as soon as possible” due to the worsening security situation in Afghanistan, a spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) told CNN on Friday.

“Due to the latest developments in Afghanistan, the FDFA has already reduced its Swiss staff on the ground by half. As a result, there are currently three Swiss employees left in Kabul. The FDFA will transfer these people as soon as possible to another country,” the spokesperson said in an email.

The evacuation was announced earlier on Friday by Deputy Foreign Minister Livia Leu during a news conference in Bern, Switzerland. 

The Taliban says the governor of the province of Logar “has joined the Mujahideen with all his staff.”

It posted an image of the governor, Abdul Qayyum Rahimi, in the provincial capital, Pul-e-Alam, surrounded by Taliban fighters. 

A Taliban spokesperson said the provincial headquarters and police headquarters had been taken over while attacks on other government installations were continuing. Images from the city also showed prisoners leaving its main jail. 

The Afghan Ministry of Interior tweeted that at least seven Taliban insurgents had been killed in a series of airstrikes in central Logar province on Friday.

Logar is within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the Afghan capital. Pul-e-Alam was the 17th provincial capital to fall to the Taliban. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to deliver an on-camera statement regarding the situation in Afghanistan at 2:30 p.m. ET Friday. 

Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, expressed she’s “deeply concerned” over the situation in Afghanistan.

“Again, Again, civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence. One thing is clear from the country’s recent history: durable peace and development will not be achieved militarily. We’re ready to contribute to a negotiated settlement,” she tweeted.

President Biden will be briefed regularly this weekend by his national security team on the situation in Afghanistan while he is at Camp David, a White House official said. 

As CNN has already reported, Biden is having no second thoughts about his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan even as the Taliban have taken ground more rapidly than the US expected.

While the Biden administration was caught off guard by the speed of the Taliban advance, the official insisted that the presence of sufficient US troops at nearby bases to deploy to Afghanistan this week shows that the administration had planned for all contingencies — including a rapid Taliban advance.

The official also stands by the administration’s rapid drawdown of forces this summer, noting that “military planners told us that speed equals safety.”

The official said the administration stands by its view that “if we had combat forces in Afghanistan after May 1 without a plan to leave then we would be back in a shooting war with the Taliban.”

Norway will temporarily close its embassy in Kabul and evacuate staff from Afghanistan, including both posted diplomats and locally employed Afghans with immediate family who want to leave for Norway, according to a statement from Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide.

“The situation means that we are now initiating a temporary closure and evacuation of our embassy in Kabul. The responsibility for the safety of our employees weighs heavily in this situation. At the same time, we will continue our extensive efforts for Afghanistan,” Eriksen Søreide said Friday, adding that Norway “will reopen the embassy in Kabul when the situation allows.”

“We know that it is a demanding situation for Norwegian citizens staying in Afghanistan and that we will not be able to support them like usual, as long as the embassy is closed,” Eriksen Søreide said in the statement. 

The move follows calls made by the British, German, French, Danish and US embassies this week urging citizens inside Afghanistan to leave the country immediately in light of threats to security.

Norway has encouraged its citizens to leave Afghanistan since Aug. 4 and has been advising against all travel to and all stays in Afghanistan since March 2018.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, said that “clearly this is not going well” as the Taliban takes over half of the country’s provincial capitals.  

“There is a disaster unfolding on ground here that we have to make sure that we’re getting our arms around,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash.

 Crow outlined three things he thinks need to happen in Afghanistan:

“The near-term mission over the next couple of days is to protect Americans and US citizens and to evacuate those that need to be evacuated as quickly as possible. The second mission is to evacuate Afghans and partners, and I’m calling on (the) Biden administration to conduct a speedy and robust and broad evacuation of our allies and our partners and democracy workers and others who are at great risk over the next couple of weeks. And then the third, longer-term mission is making sure that we don’t see the reconstitution of ISIS and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan,” he said. 

Crow said that while special operations are fighting against the Taliban, “it is true overall that the rank-and-file is not holding in Afghanistan.”

He said there is a difference between arming, equipping, training and giving resources to an army and that actual army’s will to fight. He also brought up the issue of identity. “Afghanistan is a largely tribal country; it always has been so,” he said. 

President Biden last month said that it’s “highly unlikely” that the Taliban would take over the whole country. 

“It is definitely not going well. And there are very tough questions that I’m going to ask and that others are going to ask about how we misread the signals and the intelligence here,” Crow said. 

But he reiterated that the immediate focus should be on protecting US citizens and allies in Afghanistan. 

Crow also said that his fellow veterans should be proud of themselves as the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks approaches. 

“You stood up and when your country needed you. You answered the call. Be proud of your service and what you did for our country. And we’ll have the policy debates later,” he said.

Watch:

The allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in the North Atlantic Council on Friday to continue to assess developments on the ground in Afghanistan, and it will continue to maintain its diplomatic presence in Kabul, according to a statement from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

“Our aim remains to support the Afghan government and security forces as much as possible. The security of our personnel is paramount. NATO will maintain our diplomatic presence in Kabul, and continue to adjust as necessary,” Stoltenberg said in the statement, adding that NATO is in constant contact with the Afghan authorities and the rest of the international community.

“NATO Allies are deeply concerned about the high levels of violence caused by the Taliban’s offensive, including attacks on civilians, targeted killings, and reports of other serious human rights abuses. The Taliban need to understand that they will not be recognised by the international community if they take the country by force,” Stoltenberg added. “We remain committed to supporting a political solution to the conflict.”

Denmark will evacuate staff from its embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, as the Taliban’s advance continues, according to a Friday news release from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Danish government has “reached an agreement with parties in the Parliament regarding a new support initiative for locally employed Afghan staff with ties to Denmark,” according to the ministry. 

The initiative will offer local embassy staff the opportunity to be evacuated to Denmark. Previous embassy staff and people who have worked for the Danish Defense Service during the past two years may also request to be evacuated. Through the initiative, locally employed staff may bring their spouse or partner, as well as children under the age of 18 with them to Denmark.

“The security situation in Afghanistan is serious. The Taliban are gaining terrain, and the situation is developing even faster than many people have feared. We have a collective responsibility to help the Afghans who are threatened because of their association with and contribution to Denmark’s engagement in Afghanistan,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

This follows calls made by the UK, German, French, and US embassies earlier this week urging citizens inside Afghanistan to leave the country immediately in light of threats to security.

Denmark said its evacuations will take place “as soon as possible,” albeit in a gradual manner “so that the embassy in Kabul can continue to function.”

“The grounds for residency will be temporary, with a time restriction of two years without a possibility of extension,” the news release said. “The right to a two-year residence permit in Denmark is conditional on the persons being evacuated are not deemed to constitute a danger to Denmark’s security”.

Staff members who meet the specific and temporary grounds for residency will be allowed to apply for a residency permit under the Danish Aliens Act once safely arrived in the country.

President Biden convened a meeting of his senior national security team Wednesday night based on the rapid gains of the Taliban over the last several days, according to a senior US official.

The President was briefed on the battlefield situation and the plan that had been drafted to draw down Embassy personnel and send in US forces to facilitate that effort. 

At 7:30 a.m. ET Thursday, the national security principals met to go over the latest plan and their response to Biden. They unanimously signed off on the plan that would be presented as final, the official said. 

As CNN reported earlier, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin then briefed Biden on the full recommendation. Biden signed off and ordered Austin to carry it out.   

Biden spoke to Secretary of State Antony Blinken about diplomatic engagement with allies and partners, which US officials have been conducting throughout the day, the source said.

That included the call between Blinken and Austin with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, as well as US engagement with officials from partners on the ground, those with a diplomatic presence in the country and the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. 

There is a senior US team in Doha that will engage on the issue, including directly with the Taliban negotiators that are currently there.

The official said overall effort is already underway to reduce the number of personnel at the embassy, though the precise number of personnel slated to leave the embassy has not been finalized.  

The official made clear that the Taliban gains are more rapid than the US assessed when they made the decision to draw down troops. But both the possibility of significant Taliban gains and concerns about the capability of the Afghan National Security Forces were always elements the administration knew they would have to contend with. 

Some more context: The current deterioration has done nothing to shift Biden’s thinking on his decision and in many ways, it has bolstered it, with the performance of the Afghan security forces underscoring that no amount of additional time was going to dramatically change the dynamics on the ground. There also remains the view inside the White House that there wasn’t any option to simply leave 2,500 troops on the ground and expect a similar posture from the Taliban after May 1. 

The administration assessed the Taliban’s military capability as its strongest since 2001, and after May 1, there was every reason to believe it would be directed at US troops had a drawdown timeline not been laid out. The only options, according to this official, was drawdown or add thousands more US troops. 

US officials have communicated directly to the Taliban that if US personnel are put at risk, the US will defend them. No commitments or agreements were made about US forces on the ground with the Taliban prior to Biden’s decision. 

As of now the plan is to keep the Embassy operating with its core diplomatic presence. But there is a recognition that it could change in the coming days, weeks or months.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the Defense Department is “aiming to facilitate the reduction of these civilian personnel by August 31,” to line up with the end of August US troop withdrawal deadline set by President Biden, but added he could not “speculate about what the footprint’s going to look like post August 31,” during a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday.

The Taliban has taken control of Firoz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor province in central Afghanistan, a local source told CNN Friday. 

Afghan government officials were forced to surrender on Thursday after the Taliban seized the governor’s office, police headquarters, and the National Directorate of Security office, the source confirmed. Adding that Taliban fighters opened the central jail in Ghor province, freeing all prisoners. 

The Taliban has taken control of 17 provincial capitals since last Friday, making large territorial gains in the north of the country, which has traditionally been an anti-Taliban stronghold. 

The successful military offensive is advancing the Taliban’s main goal of encircling Kabul and pushing out President Ashraf Ghani’s government.

A senior administration official familiar with the most recent US intelligence assessment on Afghanistan told CNN Wednesday that Kabul could fall into the hands of the Taliban within 30 to 90 days.

The current and former governors of Herat, the National Directorate of Security chief, the deputy interior minister, and an Afghan Army Corps Commander have all joined the Taliban following the fall of Herat, the group claimed on Friday. 

Afghan politician and warlord Mohammad Ismail Khan was the most prominent figure to defect. Khan, who formerly served as the governor of Herat and an Afghan government minister, was seen in a Taliban video Friday speaking alongside militants.

Herat’s deputy interior minister Abdul Rahman Rahman and National Directorate of Security Chief Hasib Sediqi, along with Afghan Army Corps commander, Khyal Nabi Ahmadzai, had also defected, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told journalists Friday.

Ahmadi also claimed “thousands” of Afghan Security Forces had joined Taliban ranks in Herat. 

CNN has not been able to independently verify all the Taliban’s defection claims but has viewed video of Mohammad Ismail Khan with the militant group. 

Herat, which is the third largest city in Afghanistan, fell to the Taliban on Friday. Currently, at least 17 provincial capitals are under Taliban control.

According to a CNN analysis, the Taliban now controls 17 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals — all of which have been captured in the last week.

Four more cities fell to the Taliban on Thursday night and Friday. Several more are surrounded or under siege.

The CNN analysis is based on Taliban claims, confirmation by government and provincial officials, and visual evidence from the cities that have been taken over.

The Taliban now controls towns and territories within 100 kilometers of Kabul, including the capital of Logar province, which fell on Friday.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has announced that “In view of the changing situation in Afghanistan” the government of Pakistan has decided to relax the visa policy for foreign journalists and media workers stranded in Afghanistan.

In a statement, Ahmed said that international journalists and media workers who intend to leave Afghanistan via Pakistan are “urged to apply for a Pakistani visa.” These applications will have visas issued on a “priority basis.” 

The statement also claimed that the announcement of visa waivers by the government of Pakistan is being made “in view of the safety of journalists and media workers working in Afghanistan.”

When contacted, a spokesperson of the interior ministry confirmed to CNN that visas will be issued to “foreign journalists” working for “international organisations” and this waiver doesn’t apply to Afghan journalists.

Pakistani National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf on Connect the World:

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Taliban’s rapid gains in Afghanistan demonstrate that despite 20 years of military training and massive amounts of monetary investments, there is still “no real Afghan army that is able to defend its country,” CNN’s Fareed Zakaria says.

“We thought with just a few thousand American troops, we are somehow holding this country together. That wasn’t really the case. The Taliban had decided not to fight, because when Trump agreed to [decrease] troops down to about 3,000, the Taliban agreed to negotiate. So, there was a period there where it looked like the place was calm. But the real story is that for 10 years the Taliban had been making inroads, and for 10 years the Taliban had been taking towns,” he explained.

Former President Trump’s decision to decrease troops in Afghanistan is why US troops are not in the position to control the situation anymore, Zakaria said.

“At most, 3,000 troops can do force protection of themselves,” he said. “What you’re seeing in many of these Afghan towns, the most tell-tale sign is the Taliban is taking them over without much of a fight. The Afghan troops just melt away. Now, if we’d stayed there, could we have kept this together another few years, if we stayed in large numbers? Probably. But isn’t that telling? 20 years, a trillion dollars, and an army of 300,000 just melts away, town after town.”

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As the Taliban sweep through the provinces of western Afghanistan, the government has lost control of the capital of Uruzgan province, Tarin Kot. 

A local journalist told CNN Friday that the governor’s office, police headquarters and the central jail were now in the Taliban’s hands. The journalist said the city had fallen to the Taliban without any fighting as tribal elders had decided not to resist the Taliban advance. 

Afghan news network TOLO quoted the governor of Uruzgan, Mohammad Omar Shizad, as saying that after days of fighting around the city, the elders had urged him to cease fire because of the likely damage of further combat.

The Taliban has not formally claimed to have captured Tarin Kot, and government officials have not confirmed the city has been lost. But videos circulating Friday showed Taliban fighters in the city. 

As the US government withdraws its troops from Afghanistan, it is also evacuating some of its Afghan interpreters, who aided the US military in their operations. However, there are still thousands of interpreters, support staff and families left behind, and they’re now facing persecution at the hand of the Taliban.

Said Noor is an Afghan interpreter, who immigrated from Afghanistan, and joined the US army, but has not been able to get his family out of Afghanistan yet.

As his family sees the Taliban rapidly seizing Afghan provincial capitals, Noor says they get worried and call him.

“They just want to know about their fate — how they’re going to get out of Afghanistan, or are they going to become the next target for the Taliban? So far, I have not heard any positive feedback from the US government as far as pulling my families out of Afghanistan and bringing them into safe haven in the United States,” he told CNN.

Noor described how extremely difficult it is for any interpreters, support staff and their families to leave Afghanistan.

To get to Kabul. his parents and siblings had to make a lot of excuses and make it through a lot of checkpoints manned by the Taliban.

“[My mother] had to explain that she’s seeking medical treatment in Kabul and that’s how my family were allowed to go,” he said. “If I put myself in the shoes of the other interpreters who do not have any US contract, or local interpreters in Afghanistan, their life is [in] as much danger as my family’s life is. And they have no way to get out of the country.”

Noor also says he is “very surprised” at how quickly the cities have fallen, including Kandahar – the country’s second-biggest city – which is of particular strategic importance and was formerly a major hub for US military operations.

So far, the Taliban swept more than a dozen provincial capitals in Afghanistan.

“I’m very concerned about the situation there. And I’m sure the Taliban, pretty soon, they’re going to make their way into Kabul, and it’s going to be chaos,”

Afghanistan, he fears, will soon see a civil war.

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Pakistan is calling for an international plan to deal with Afghan refugees as the country sees an influx of people fleeing the Taliban after the US and other forces withdrew from the country. 

Moeed Yusuf, national security adviser to Pakistan’s Prime Minister, said Friday that there needs to be an “international conversation” about managing the crisis.

Yusuf told a press conference that it was “hypocritical” of the West to criticize Pakistan for not taking more refugees in, saying Pakistan has “financed and housed” the largest number of Afghan refugees and now “simply doesn’t have the economic capacity” to house more.

Pakistan’s “generosity” to take in Afghan refugees was “unparalleled, but was not a favor to anybody.”

He added that Afghans are not “commodities which everyone is washing their hands clean off” but “human beings.”

Regarding the situation in Afghanistan, Yusuf said that “there are chances of” the Afghan Taliban coming out with “some settlement” which will not be a “Western settlement,” and as long as that’s what the “Afghans decide and as long as it is politically settled and inclusive,” it will have to be “respected.”

Peace in Afghanistan is “non-negotiable for Pakistan” said Yusuf, adding that the aim is to at some point “offer” Pakistan’s sea routes to Central Asian countries, which can only be possible if Afghanistan is “somewhat peaceful.”

The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated faster than President Joe Biden and his most senior national security officials had anticipated, leaving the White House rushing to stave off the worst effects of a Taliban takeover.

The Biden administration launched a dramatic series of moves Thursday to reinforce Kabul and allow for the safe removal of a significant number of personnel from the American embassy there, as it becomes ever clearer to administration officials that the looming collapse of Afghanistan’s government and the fallout for its citizens threatens to become a permanent stain on Biden’s foreign policy legacy.

The Pentagon announced 3,000 troops are being deployed to assist with the drawdown of the embassy to only a “core diplomatic presence” and CNN reported the US is considering moving its embassy to the Kabul airport.

Despite all of this, Biden has not second-guessed his decision to withdraw, officials said, and reiterated earlier this week that the Afghans have “got to fight for themselves.” But some officials are aware that the swift unraveling of the country could damage the President’s foreign policy legacy, with intensifying peril to American diplomats in Kabul, the human rights implications of leaving women and girls to suffer under Taliban rule and power vacuums inside Afghanistan that could once again allow terrorism to flourish.

They are also bracing for Taliban atrocities to increasingly spill into public view amid deteriorating peace talks.

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An American soldier on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter flies over Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 2, 2021.

Related article Afghanistan's quick unraveling jolts national security officials and threatens to stain Biden's legacy | CNN Politics

The US is sending around 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to help with the departure of embassy staff, but CNN’s Clarissa Ward called for caution around speculation that the Taliban would try to attack Americans leaving the country.

“I think from the Taliban perspective, it’s important to underscore that what the Taliban really wants to see here is for all Americans to leave as soon as humanly possible, and I think they’ll do whatever it takes to try to facilitate that,” Ward said on Friday.

Afghan negotiating teams in Qatar, which includes US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban, are currently “thrashing out deals” on how to make the withdrawal work and how to mitigate losses on all sides, “and try to get these people out as quickly as possible,” she said.

“That’s the primary objective for the American negotiators there,” she said.

But what remains to be seen is the fate of “Afghan people living in government-held areas, who have worked for the government who have worked for the Americans – still the potential for an awful lot of bloodshed and suffering,” she said.

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Without significant deescalation in violence amid the intensifying crisis, Afghanistan could see its highest-ever documented civilian casualties in a single year, and neighboring countries should keep their borders open, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) urged.

Nearly a quarter of a million Afghans have been left internally displaced since the end of May, 80% of which are women and girls.

The agency welcomed a decision by France, Germany and the Netherlands to suspend deportations of Afghan citizens seeking asylum.

“In the context of generalized insecurity in many parts of Afghanistan, it is increasingly clear that Afghans outside of the country may have international protection needs. UNHCR calls for all states to ensure they are able to seek safety, regardless of their current legal status,” the statement said.

Germany will help evacuate Afghan support staff that worked with German forces in Afghanistan, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Friday.

“I have always said, and I repeat: the speedy departure of local forces and their families will not fail at the Ministry of the Interior.”

“There is no time for bureaucracy, we must act,” he added. 

Seehofer described the situation in Afghanistan as “becoming increasingly threatening,” as the Taliban rapidly seized more than a dozen provincial capitals in the country.

People in Afghanistan know they now “live in a different country,” Afghan journalist Ali Latifi said after Herat and Kandahar, two prominent Afghan cities, fell to the Taliban.

They were “cities that people never would have imagined would have fallen,” he said. The news of these cities falling has affected the whole country, he told CNN.

Herat and Kandahar are historically and culturally significant cities, with large populations, and people are angry, Latifi said.

“They felt like there wasn’t much of a fight put up, that there wasn’t much of an effort put into defending the cities, that these cities fell too easily, and too quickly, considering their significance.”

People are fleeing the cities as soon as they hear the Taliban are coming, he added.

As the Taliban continues its rapid advancement towards the capital, Kabul, CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton said the situation for Afghan civilians is a desperate one.

He warned that the insurgents’ gains will cause “a really big humanitarian crisis,” pointing to the period prior to 2001 when the country was under Taliban control.

“There were millions of Afghans who were refugees in neighboring countries and really all around the world. And I think we’re going to see a replay of this, unfortunately,” he said.

The only way to reverse the Taliban’s gains in the past week “would require a really large commitment of American troops,” because the Afghan military is not “up to speed in terms of being able to resist the Taliban” as they are “nowhere near the strength that people think it is on paper,” he said.

“They are not fighting for a cause they’re fighting for their lives,” he added.  

After two days of discussions with the Afghan negotiating teams in Qatar, the chair released a statement, calling for an immediate end to attacks against Afghan cities, and warning that any government formed by use of military force will not be recognized.

This international meeting chaired by Qatar hosted many international and regional stakeholders, including the United States, United Kingdom, China, India and Pakistan, among others.

The full statement posted by Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs on Thursday called for an acceleration in the peace process, halting attacks on provincial capitals.

UK defense secretary Ben Wallace on Friday said he is “absolutely worried” the al Qaeda terrorist group “will probably come back” to Afghanistan after the pullout of United States and British troops there is complete.

“Failed states are breeding grounds for those types of people, of course I’m worried,” Wallace said on Sky News.

“It’s why I said I felt this was not the right time or decision to make because, of course, al Qaeda will probably come back,” he added. 

Wallace’s comments come as the Taliban, which remains close to al Qaeda, move ever closer to Kabul.

Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan’s Helmand province, fell to the Taliban on Thursday night, the head of the Helmand Provincial Council, Attaullah Afghan, confirmed to CNN.

Afghan said the Taliban now controls the city’s police headquarters, governor’s office and central jail. The Taliban raised its flag in the governor’s office early on Friday, he added. 

 The government controls only an army base and a few other locations, Afghan said. 

The Taliban has taken control of the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, Afghan Member of Parliament Gul Ahmad Kamin told CNN on Friday.

The Taliban said in a statement Friday that “during the conquest operation, the governor’s office, police headquarters and many other centers in Kandahar city were cleared of the enemy last night and were under the control of Mujahidin.”

“Hundreds of weapons, vehicles and ammunition were seized,” the statement says.  

Kamin said he and many others have made their way to a military base by the airport and are awaiting a flight out.

“Many (government) soldiers surrendered and the rest fled,” Kamin said.