Taliban closes on reconquest

The Taliban’s siege of historic Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city and birthplace of the insurgency, is an ominous indicator of how close the Islamist terrorists are to regaining full control of the country that spawned al-Qa’ida’s 9/11 attacks. Desperate US commanders, in the final stages of their withdrawal, have called in airstrikes to try to stall the Taliban’s advance. But with the last of the US forces (apart from 650 left to guard the US embassy) set to be gone by August 31, there can be little doubt about the speed with which the Taliban is advancing towards its goal of retaking first Kandahar and then moving on to Kabul, the capital.

Reports that the Taliban is “closing in on a triumphant reconquest of their spiritual home” will spur the group on. So will estimates that the terrorists control well over half of Afghanistan’s 400 administrative districts while the Afghan National Army, trained by the US and its allies for 20 years, is putting up little resistance. On Saturday, US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley, while refusing to rule out “a complete Taliban takeover”, conceded that the terrorists had “strategic momentum”. There will be no surprise in that. But there should be alarm.

It will be a tragedy if that becomes the end of the Afghanistan story for the US and its allies, including Australia, which invested so much in the fight. Reports of the rapid Taliban advance on Kandahar include accounts of beheadings and other atrocities targeted at anyone suspected of supporting the Afghan government or helping the US and its allies. Human Rights Watch warned on Friday of hundreds of people being rounded up in newly reconquered areas of Kandahar. Afghan media suggests many already have been put to death.

It may be too late for Joe Biden to rethink his determination to give effect to Donald Trump’s ill-judged decision to retreat. But when that deadline is reached on August 31, the West should not turn its back on what happens in a country of strategic importance to South and Central Asia, including India, a key Western ally, as well as Pakistan.

Kandahar, where extremist madrassas are the militant Pashtun fighters’ spiritual home, was the epicentre of the Taliban’s sharia law regime when it ruled between 1996 and 2001. It was home to its founder, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and the launch pad of the alliance he built with Osama bin Laden that led to the global onslaught by al-Qa’ida. These days, Islamic State also has bases in the country. The siege of Kandahar is a defining development in the allied retreat. It also underlines the dangers facing Afghans who worked for Australia and are seeking permission to relocate here.