The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing a stunning end to a two-decade campaign in which the U.S. and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan. Insurgents attacked Afghanistan in less than a week and forced the collapse of Western-trained security personnel. This was just a week before the planned withdrawal of all American troops.
The calm settled in the capital. Most people hid in their homes, as the Taliban stationed fighters at major intersections. There were reports of looting, armed men knocking at doors and gates and less traffic on the otherwise quiet streets. One of the main squares was used by fighters to search vehicles.
Many fear chaos after the Taliban released thousands of prisoners. The police may have melted away or returned to the brutal rule that the Taliban used when they were last in power. They raced to Kabul’s international airport, where the “civilian side” was closed until further notice, according to Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The airspace was re-enforced under the control of the military.
Social media videos showed hundreds of people running on the tarmac while U.S. soldiers fired warning shots. One video showed a crowd pushing up and down a staircase trying to climb aboard a plane. Some people were hanging from the railings.
Another video shows hundreds of people running alongside an American Air Force transport plane while it moves down a runway. Some people climbed on the sides of the aircraft just before takeoff. This raised questions about the safety of landing and taking off.
Massouma Tajik (22-year-old data analyst) described panic scenes at the airport where she was trying to board an evacuation flight.
After six hours of waiting, she heard shots outside. A crowd of people was trying to climb onto a plane. After people climbed the walls, she said that U.S. troops fired gas into the air to disperse them. The voice messages she left to The Associated Press could hear gunfire.
Shafi Arifi had a ticket for Uzbekistan but was unable to board the plane as it was jammed with people who raced across the runway and climbed aboard. There was no staff or police on hand.
The 24-year-old said, “There wasn’t enough room for us to stand.” “Children were crying, mothers were screaming, young and elderly men were so upset and angry that no one could hear them, everyone was unable to hear each other,” she said. There was no oxygen for breathing.”
Arifi decided to give up after another woman fell and was taken off the plane.
The U.S. Embassy was evacuated and the flag of the United States lowered. Diplomats moved to the airport to assist with the evacuation. Others from Western countries have closed their missions, and are now flying out staff members and nationals.
Afghans also want to cross the land border crossings into Uzbekistan, which are all controlled by Taliban. Rakhmatula Kuyash (30), was one of few with a visa that allowed him to enter Uzbekistan. His children and his relatives were required to remain behind, he said.
“I am lost and don’t know where to go.” He said, “I left everything behind.”
The speed of the Taliban offensive through the country appears to have stunned American officials. A U.S. military assessment had predicted that it would take several months for Kabul to fall, even if there was little resistance just days prior.
The rout threatened to erase 20 years of Western efforts to remake Afghanistan that saw more than 3,500 U.S. and allied troops killed as well as tens of thousands of Afghans. Al-Qaida, who had been hiding in Afghanistan and planned the 9/11 attacks, was driven from power by the initial invasion. Many had hoped that the Western-backed Afghan government would bring about a new era in peace and respect for human right’s.
The Taliban regrouped after the U.S. began to lose focus on Afghanistan in the Iraq war. As the U.S. prepared to withdraw before an Aug. 31 deadline, the Taliban seized large swathes of Afghanistan’s countryside and then invaded cities.
The Taliban ruled according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Women were kept in their homes, and suspected criminals were subject to amputation or public execution. The insurgents have sought to project greater moderation in recent years, but many Afghans remain skeptical.
Suhail Shaheen tweeted that a Taliban spokesperson said that fighters were instructed not to enter any homes without permission and to protect “life and property and honor.”
These assurances are part a Taliban effort to “shape a narrative that their accession is legitimate — a message both inside and outside Afghanistan’s borders,” the Texas-based private intelligence company Stratfor stated.
“The Taliban’s speedy final advance suggests that they have less military power than an effective political insurgency, a cohesive Afghan political system, and a security force with flagging morale.”
The city had suffered extensive damage in civil war between rival warlords seven years prior to the Taliban’s last takeover of Kabul in 1996. Around a million people lived in the city at that time, mostly traveling by bike or an aging taxi.
Kabul today is a thriving city of 5 million people. Here, luxury cars and SUVs are unable to navigate the endemic traffic jams.
WahidullahQadiri, a local resident, expressed hope for peace following decades of war which claimed the lives two of his brothers as well as a cousin.
He said that “we haven’t seen anything except fighting and catastrophes.” Therefore, “we always live with hope for long-lasting peace.”
