Afghanistan: Taliban set for final onslaught as Biden’s retreat begins

US troops brace for onslaught as Taliban accuses Biden of breaking a protection deal struck by Trump.

A US soldier presents a gift to an Afghan child during a patrol at Khogyani in Nangarhar. Picture: AFP

The last American troops in Afghanistan are braced for a final Taliban onslaught as they begin a phased five-month withdrawal next week.

The Islamists have accused President Biden of breaking an accord struck by the Trump administration last year under which US troops were to have left by Saturday. They have threatened to resume attacks on US and Nato troops. The ultimatum comes amid a surge of violence targeting Afghan government forces.

Under Trump’s deal with the Taliban the remaining 2,500 American forces were scheduled to leave the country by May 1. However, after a brief flurry of diplomacy to revive stalled peace talks Biden pushed the deadline back to September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that triggered the US-led invasion in 2001 and the longest war in American history.

The Taliban have not targeted coalition forces since the Trump deal was agreed in Qatar last year but the group released a propaganda training video this week showing its fighters raiding a fortified military compound and referring to them as a “victorious army”.

The US ordered non-essential staff to leave its embassy in Kabul this week. Ross Wilson, the acting US ambassador to Afghanistan, said that the State Department took the decision “in light of increasing violence and threat reports”.

Reuters reported yesterday that Taliban fighters had, in fact, been protecting western military bases in Afghanistan from attacks by rival or rogue groups for more than a year, under a secret annexe to Trump’s deal. The State Department did not comment on the existence of any such deal nor on a “Taliban ring of protection”.

The US has retained an aircraft carrier in the Middle East and moved at least four B-52 bombers and part of an Army Ranger task force to the region as a precaution. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Thursday that the pullout was “complex and not without risk”.

US marines on patrol on the North Eastern outskirts of Marjah, Afghanistan. Picture: AFP

Two former secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, told a private session of the House foreign affairs committee of concerns about Biden’s withdrawal plan, Axios reported yesterday (Friday). “They agreed we’re going to need to sustain a counterterrorism mission somehow outside of that country,” one member told the news outlet. “Condi Rice is like, ‘You know, we’re probably gonna have to go back’,” the unnamed member added.

In a nod to the original May 1 deadline the White House has confirmed that a final US withdrawal has begun, but US reports suggest that fewer than a hundred troops will leave next week. The massive logistical challenge to dismantle the vast US military footprint in the country will require a brief increase in personnel over the coming weeks.

“A drawdown is under way,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House deputy press secretary, told reporters on Thursday. “While these actions will initially result in increased forces levels, we remain committed to having all US military personnel out of Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.”

In an effort to allay Afghan government concerns, General Kenneth McKenzie, head of US Central Command, said this week that the Biden administration remained committed to maintaining an embassy in Kabul, even with the growing prospect of the Taliban returning to power. “But we’ll have a very, very minimal military presence there; that which is strictly necessary to defend the embassy,” he added.

US President Joe Biden walks through Arlington National cemetary to honor fallen veterans of the Afghan conflict last month. Picture: AFP

The withdrawal is going ahead despite concerns that the Taliban have not met their own obligations under the Qatar deal: a pledge to sever their longstanding ties with al-Qaeda and ensure that Afghanistan cannot be used as a platform for attacks on the West.

Western intelligence agencies remain convinced that al-Qaeda is embedded within the Taliban. With the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Osama bin Laden by US special forces also falling this weekend an unnamed al-Qaeda official told CNN that the “war against the US will continue on all other fronts unless they are expelled from the Islamic world”.

Afghan forces are bearing the brunt of a new Taliban onslaught, with more than a hundred having been killed in the past fortnight as the insurgents lay the ground for a return to power. Afghanistan’s professional middle classes have been targeted, with judges, civil servants, scholars, journalists and rights activists shot dead. Professional Afghan women are especially at risk, with two Supreme Court judges killed in Kabul in January; a move calculated to terrorise educated women out of the workplace. The campaign has prompted many Afghans to flee the country.