Taliban fighters advance after US closes main Afghan base
More than a dozen local districts are believed to have fallen to Taliban control in recent days, according to officials and reports.
Taliban fighters have moved to take control of dozens of new districts in Afghanistan in recent days, after the US last week closed its operations at Bagram Air Field, the centerpiece of the American military presence for nearly 20 years.
The transfer of the air base to the Afghan army added momentum to a Taliban drive which has retaken districts in the country’s north, east and south, according to officials and local news reports.
US officials have said Taliban fighters have taken more than 100 districts, although more than 15 districts appear to have fallen to Taliban control in the past two days, according to ToloNews.
Afghanistan consists of more than 400 local government districts, which are comparable to counties in the US, and district centres. Local Afghan forces have fled amid Taliban advances in some districts, while fighting has ensued in others.
General Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is travelling to Brussels and Doha, Qatar, to meet with other officials, and is expected to return to Afghanistan soon. He then is expected to turn over his command in the coming weeks. Rear Admiral Peter Vasely, who is already in the country, will become the new US senior officer, officials said. In an interview aired on Sunday (Monday AEST) on ABC News, General Miller expressed concern about the departure of US forces.
“I don’t like leaving friends in need and I know my friends are in need, ” he said in the interview, which was recorded June 24.
“If you look at the security situation. It’s not good. The Afghans recognise it’s not good.”
General Miller last week warned of the potential for a civil war in the country following the departure of US forces.
Top US military officials and other advisers to President Joe Biden had recommended to the White House that it maintain a small military force in Afghanistan. Mr Biden decided in April to remove all American forces from Afghanistan except for about 650 troops at the Kabul airport and the US Embassy. All other forces will depart Afghanistan by the end of August, Pentagon officials said.
Michael McCaul, the senior Republican member of the House of Representatives foreign affairs Committee, told Fox News Sunday that the “devastation” in Afghanistan, including targeting of women and the overall humanitarian crisis, is alarming.
“President Biden is going to own these ugly images,” he said, predicting that al-Qa’ida and Islamic State will find havens in areas of Afghanistan under Taliban control.
US diplomatic officials in Kabul sought to rebut media reports that the US embassy was in danger of closing. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that US military and State Department officials had intensified planning for an emergency evacuation of the embassy, which potentially would include thousands of US military and civilian personnel, if the security situation deteriorated. “We have no plans to close the embassy,” an embassy Twitter message said.
The Wall Street Journal
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