Only local men stand between the Taliban and their homecoming

After the Afghan army’s collapse, the police are all that remain to thwart the Islamists’ return to Kandahar, the city that spawned them.

An afghan security official stands alert at a check point in Kandahar last week. Picture: EPA

Panic, terror and whispers of a conspiracy have gripped Afghanistan’s second city as the Taliban advance into Kandahar and close in on a triumphant reconquest of their spiritual home.

In parts of the southern city, Afghan commandos and local militias are already engaged in house-to-house fighting with Islamist gunmen, holding off a wave of Taliban suicide bombers sent to blast their way through government lines.

At Kandahar’s main hospital, now barely a mile from the front line, dozens of wounded arrive each night. Thousands of people fleeing outlying districts are now sheltered in a local school. Many more have fled altogether.

“The situation is very bad. There is heavy fighting in the south and west of the city controlled by the Taliban. At night they target the centre with mortars and artillery,” said one resident, Shamsullah. “People are looting property and shops looking for food. All the main roads out of the city are held by the Taliban. Kandahar is under siege.”

With an all-out assault on the provincial capital anticipated and Taliban reinforcements massing in the area, US airstrikes were called in last week to drive the insurgents back, a parting shot as the last American troops prepare to leave the country. In a phone call late on Friday, President Joe Biden assured Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of continued US diplomatic and humanitarian support. Yet on the ground the Taliban has continued its lightning advance of the past month, capturing swaths of the country in the wake of the US withdrawal after 20 years of war.

Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, is the biggest prize in the country after Kabul. They have advanced on the city since seizing a border crossing into Pakistan 10 days ago, severing a vital supply line into the provincial capital. Fighters are now dug into the outskirts, the centre within range of their mortars.

Afghan forces have ordered residents in frontline neighbourhoods to evacuate their homes as they prepare to launch a counteroffensive. However the speed of the army’s capitulation across the rest of Kandahar province has prompted rumours of a secret deal between insurgents and security forces.

“The Afghan army is not fighting the Taliban. They have handed over their weapons and ammunition, even their night-vision goggles, to the Taliban,” Shamsullah said. “The police are fighting, because they are local people. They have to fight, and no way out.”

Kamaluddin Wesal, a medical worker in the city, was speaking to The Sunday Times when there was an explosion and gunfire behind him. “The medical situation is very poor. Many medical workers left the city because of the fighting, and medicines are running short,” Mr Wesal said.

“Children are begging. All the markets and shops are closed. People are trapped in their homes and we have only a few hours’ power a day. Life is suspended.”

As government forces buckle, the Pentagon confirmed last week that US forces have launched drone strikes on Taliban positions over the past month, including near Kandahar. American officials stressed there was “no change in policy” in Afghanistan, however, and no change to the timetable set by Mr Biden to complete the military withdrawal by August 31.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, denounced the airstrikes as a violation of the accord struck last year in the Gulf state of Qatar between the US and the militants. “The Islamic emirate condemns these barbaric attacks in the strongest terms. It is a clear violation of (a) signed agreement that will have consequences,” Mr Mujahid said.

Yet with the US dashing for the exit, the Taliban know that ­Afghan forces will lose their most effective air support within days. US warplanes have already been moved to the Middle East and Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean. The US no longer has an airbase in central Asia.

Mr Ghani confirmed late on Friday that Kabul was seeking continued US military support for government forces after the withdrawal. “This evening, I spoke with President Biden (who) reassured me that support for the ANDSF (Afghan National Defence and Security Forces) will continue. We have confidence that they will protect and defend Afghanistan,” Mr Ghani tweeted.

On Saturday night his government imposed a curfew in 31 of the country’s 34 provinces to attempt to halt the Taliban advance.

Washington has been alarmed by the deteriorating security situation and the Afghan military’s collapse. General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded last week that the Taliban had “strategic momentum” in the battle for Afghanistan and declined to rule out “a complete Taliban takeover”.

THE SUNDAY TIMES