Taliban suffer first battlefield loss since fall of Kabul

Signals the start of a fresh civil conflict as the Western evacuation effort from Kabul reaches deadly new heights of chaos.

British troops work with the US military at Kabul airport to evacuate people out of Afghanistan on Saturday. Picture: UK Ministry of Defence via Getty Images

Anti-Taliban militia forces captured three districts 160km north of Kabul in two days of fighting at the weekend, signalling the start of a fresh civil conflict in Afghanistan as the Western evacuation effort from the capital reached deadly new heights of chaos.

At least seven people died in a panicked crush outside the airport on Saturday, bringing the evacuation death toll to 19, the British defence ministry said on Sunday.

Britain’s Sky News aired footage of bodies covered in white shrouds, Western soldiers pulling children out of the deadly crowds and treating injured and badly dehydrated Afghans.

Many were simply being pulled into another security barrier – not one likely to lead to an air passage out of a country that many fear is about to be pulled back into an ­arcane and brutal form of Islamic governance, but at least a safe haven for now.

Afghan security forces manning checkpoints between the Taliban outside the airport and Western forces inside said on Sunday the airport would be closed for 48 hours to allow the evacuation of crowds of people within the airport, some of whom had gone days without food, and for the inter­national community to prepare more refugee shelters. The US government has also warned its citizens to stay away from the airport unless specifically contacted to come, amid fears Islamic State fighters may seek to capitalise on the mayhem to launch attacks.

The Biden administration hopes to have evacuated as many as 15,000 Americans and 60,000 allied Afghans by August 31, a deadline described as “mathematically impossible” by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who also complained that US forces were hampering Afghans who worked for the Europeans from entering.

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said several member countries were pushing for Kabul airport to remain open for evacuations beyond August 31.

In a piece for the Mail on Sunday, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace offered the UK’s “complete support” to the US if it extended the deadline. Former prime minister Tony Blair, however, openly condemned America’s hasty withdrawal as “tragic, dangerous, unnecessary”, adding that Joe Biden had made the call to satisfy “an imbecilic slogan about ending ‘the forever wars’ ”.

Recruits for the resistance train in the Dara district in Panjshir on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Even Russia, which has moved to capitalise on America’s humiliating exit by scheduling talks with Taliban leaders and asserting its Kabul embassy staff would stay, is said to be concerned about the ­potential for other terror groups to spill over into the territory of its Central Asian allies as the Taliban – spread thinner than ever – struggles to maintain control.

“Perhaps, some cells of al-Qa’ida, perhaps of ISIS, based in Afghanistan, would instigate some actions in Central Asia,” Andrei Kortunov from the Russian International Affairs Council think tank said.

The Taliban is already facing challenges in the north where an emerging militia force, fighting under the banner of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, launched attacks on Islamist fighters in northern Baghlan on Friday and Saturday.

The group, which claims to number more than 7000 men including many former Afghan army soldiers, posted pictures on social media celebrating the capture of government building and some military and police vehicles.

Afghanistan’s former army chief of staff Ahmad Yasin Zia said three districts were now under the control of the resistance, which claims also to have some former Afghan National Army helicopters. But by late Sunday, the Taliban had ­deployed additional forces to the area and given the group a four-hour deadline to surrender.

Based in the Panjshir Valley, the heartland of anti-Taliban ­resistance, the militants are led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of the late anti-Taliban hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, and former first vice-president Amrullah Saleh.

In a weekend interview shared with The Australian, the British-­educated Mr Massoud said there was “still an opportunity for peace” and the Taliban leadership should “seize this opportunity to see a government with a broad rule … that includes everyone and complies with international law”.

“If not, the history of Afghanistan has shown us that one side may win but maintaining such a victory has been impossible; we must move towards peace negotiations and create an inclusive government that represents all ethnic groups,” he said.

“Every unilateral victory by any group in Afghanistan has been short-lived and, unfortunately, bloody and cruel.

“We have no choice but to ­establish a participatory government in ­Afghanistan, otherwise the resistance will continue and we will lose several more generations.”

The Taliban has said it will have a new governing model for ­Afghanistan in the next fortnight, one framed by legal, religious and foreign-policy experts that would not be a democracy but would “protect everyone’s rights”.

The Taliban has been working to present a moderate face since it overran the capital last Sunday, and has urged its public service to return to work.

Afghan media ­reported dozens of bureaucrats were barred from entering offices on Saturday and told by Taliban that infidels had no right to work in the new Islamic emirate.