Wednesday 11 August 2021
“Afghan will have to fight on their own”
Biden sees Taliban as militarily inferior
Following the withdrawal of international forces, the United States comes to a sober assessment of the military situation: US President Biden says the Afghan government’s forces are militarily superior to Islamists. Now the Afghans will have to fight for their own land.
According to US President Joe Biden, the fight against the militant Islamist Taliban is now a matter for Afghans. In the wake of Islamists’ recent progress following a massive withdrawal of international troops, Biden told the White House on Tuesday that Afghans would now “fight for their state”. Their armed forces are also militarily superior to the Taliban in terms of military strength. “But they must also fight,” Biden said. The US President also appealed to the political leadership in Kabul to come together. Literally, he said, “I think they are beginning to understand that they have to come together at the top politically.”
Biden promised that the US would continue to support Afghan security forces financially and militarily. They are apprised of the situation every day. In view of the withdrawal of American troops ordered by him, the president said: “But I do not regret my decision.” At the time of the decision, the US still had about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. According to the army, the withdrawal is now more than 95 percent complete. It should be completely over by the end of the month. Troops from the Bundeswehr and other NATO countries have already left Afghanistan. Since the withdrawal of international troops in early May, the Taliban have captured several areas.
Eight provincial cities fell
On Tuesday he took the eighth provincial capital in quick succession. According to initially unconfirmed reports, the city of Faisalabad is said to have fallen into the hands of Islamists in the evening. Despite the Taliban’s progress, the US government believes that security forces in Afghanistan have enough “equipment, troops and training” to fight the militant Islamist group. US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki in Washington said it would strengthen the Afghan government to negotiate a political solution to the conflict. The US government is convinced that only a negotiated solution will “successfully bring peace and stability” to Afghanistan.
A day earlier, the US Department of Defense reported that the Afghan armed forces were militarily superior to the Taliban. The Taliban also had no air force. He did not comment on recent reports that the Taliban was targeting US-trained Afghan Air Force pilots. The fact that the Taliban captured state-of-the-art weapons when government troops withdrew was also not an issue in Washington’s assessment. According to the current schedule, America wants to withdraw its last soldiers by the end of the month.
Mazar-e-Sharif cut from the ground
During the day, the Taliban captured Pul-e Chumri with a population of 250,000 in Baghlan province in the north. This was ratified by the three provincial councils in the evening. The land route between the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif is now cut off.
According to provincial councilor Firusuddin Aimak, government forces left the city that evening without resistance. Several commanders and other officers had left Pul-e-Chumri 10 or 15 days earlier and announced that they would attack the Islamists through another route. The remaining forces may have endured a few more days, but are now back at a military base outside.
Pul-i-Chumri is located on an important underground road between Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, where until recently the Bundeswehr had its base. The city is the second largest city in the north-east of the country after Kunduz.
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