UPDATED
UN Afghanistan official warns over Taliban gains
AFGHANISTAN DEFEATED THE BRITISH, RUSSIANS AND NOW AMERICA
Issued on: 22/06/2021
A top UN official has raised worries over Taliban gains in Afganistan
Joël SAGET AFP/File
United Nations (United States) (AFP)
The head of the United Nations Afghanistan aid operation expressed strong concerns Tuesday over military gains by the Taliban insurgents as US and coalition forces pull out of the country.
"All of the major trends -- politics, security, the peace process, the economy, the humanitarian emergency, and Covid -- all of these trends are negative or stagnant," Deborah Lyons told the UN Security Council in a video conference.
"The Taliban's recent advances are even more significant and are a result of an intensified military campaign," said Lyons, who leads the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
"For the Taliban to continue this intensive military campaign would be a tragic course of action," she said.
She said the Islamist insurgents have seized more that 50 of the country's 370 districts, mostly districts which surround provincial capitals.
That, Lyons said, suggests the Taliban "are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn."
She said if the insurgents continue their fight, the prolonged violence "would extend the suffering of the Afghan people and threaten to destroy much of what has been built and hard won in the past 20 years."
She expressed special worries for the rights of women as the ultra-conservative Taliban gain ground.
"Preserving the rights of women remains a paramount concern and must not be used as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table," she said.
In the same forum, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stressed that the world would not accept the Taliban seizing control of Kabul and the government.
"The world will not recognize the establishment in Afghanistan of any government imposed by force, nor the restoration of the Islamic Emirate," Thomas-Greenfield said.
"There is only one way forward: a negotiated and inclusive political settlement through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process. "
UN Afghan envoy Deborah Lyons alarmed at Taliban gains
Tue, June 22, 2021
Afghan security forces said they would launch an offensive to reclaim lost territory
Taliban fighters have seized dozens of districts in Afghanistan as they step up attacks during the final withdrawal by foreign troops, the UN has warned.
The insurgents have taken more than 50 of 370 districts since May, UN special envoy Deborah Lyons told the Security Council, warning of "dire scenarios".
She said increased conflict "means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far".
The US and Nato are still aiming for a complete troop pullout by 11 September.
However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the situation remained "dynamic" and, although the Taliban gains had not changed the withdrawal, there was still the flexibility to alter its "pace and scope".
The hardline Islamist group's recent advances were the result of an "intensified military campaign", Ms Lyons told the the 15-member UN Security Council in New York.
The Taliban have stepped up their military campaign now foreign troops are leaving for good
"Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn."
The Taliban also captured Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan on Tuesday, officials said. The crossing stands in the northern province of Kunduz, where fighting has escalated in recent days.
'We have won the war, America has lost'
Have things got better in Afghanistan?
Who are the Taliban?
Taliban fighters say they have control of the whole province, with only the provincial capital - also named Kunduz - retained by the government. But the defence ministry in Kabul said Afghan forces had recaptured some districts and operations were ongoing.
Kunduz city is strategically significant, and briefly fell to the insurgents in 2015 and again a year later, before being retaken both times by Nato-backed government forces.
Afghan security forces pictured in the strategic city of Kunduz
Local media report that the Taliban have also seized large quantities of military equipment, and killed, wounded or captured dozens of troops. The group's own casualty figures are unclear.
Afghan security forces said they would launch a massive offensive shortly to reclaim lost territory.
"You will soon witness our advances across the country," said spokesman Gen Ajmal Shinwari.
US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in October 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks in the US.
US President Joe Biden says the American pullout is now justified as US forces have made sure Afghanistan cannot again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West.
A senior United Nations official warned last year, however, that al-Qaeda was still "heavily embedded" within Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says government forces are fully capable of keeping insurgents at bay, but many believe the withdrawal could cast Afghanistan back into the grip of the Taliban.
How can the West fight terror after leaving Afghanistan?
20 years in Afghanistan: Was it worth it?
Mr Biden has pledged that the US will continue to support Afghanistan after pulling troops out, but not "militarily".
Afghanistan's leaders say Afghan security forces are capable of keeping the Taliban's fighters at bay
Writing in the Washington Post on Tuesday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said his country was willing to be a "partner for peace in Afghanistan" with the US, but would not host US bases.
He said Pakistan had previously made mistakes by choosing between warring parties in neighbouring Afghanistan, and pledged to work with anyone who enjoyed the confidence of the Afghan people.
Afghan leaders have long accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban. The country's co-operation is seen as critical to US withdrawal goals.
Mr Khan said recently that he would "absolutely not" allow the CIA into Pakistan to conduct cross-border counter-terrorism missions against al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group or the Taliban.
Tue, June 22, 2021
Afghan security forces said they would launch an offensive to reclaim lost territory
Taliban fighters have seized dozens of districts in Afghanistan as they step up attacks during the final withdrawal by foreign troops, the UN has warned.
The insurgents have taken more than 50 of 370 districts since May, UN special envoy Deborah Lyons told the Security Council, warning of "dire scenarios".
She said increased conflict "means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far".
The US and Nato are still aiming for a complete troop pullout by 11 September.
However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the situation remained "dynamic" and, although the Taliban gains had not changed the withdrawal, there was still the flexibility to alter its "pace and scope".
The hardline Islamist group's recent advances were the result of an "intensified military campaign", Ms Lyons told the the 15-member UN Security Council in New York.
The Taliban have stepped up their military campaign now foreign troops are leaving for good
"Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn."
The Taliban also captured Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan on Tuesday, officials said. The crossing stands in the northern province of Kunduz, where fighting has escalated in recent days.
'We have won the war, America has lost'
Have things got better in Afghanistan?
Who are the Taliban?
Taliban fighters say they have control of the whole province, with only the provincial capital - also named Kunduz - retained by the government. But the defence ministry in Kabul said Afghan forces had recaptured some districts and operations were ongoing.
Kunduz city is strategically significant, and briefly fell to the insurgents in 2015 and again a year later, before being retaken both times by Nato-backed government forces.
Afghan security forces pictured in the strategic city of Kunduz
Local media report that the Taliban have also seized large quantities of military equipment, and killed, wounded or captured dozens of troops. The group's own casualty figures are unclear.
Afghan security forces said they would launch a massive offensive shortly to reclaim lost territory.
"You will soon witness our advances across the country," said spokesman Gen Ajmal Shinwari.
US-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in October 2001. The group had been harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks in the US.
US President Joe Biden says the American pullout is now justified as US forces have made sure Afghanistan cannot again become a base for foreign jihadists to plot against the West.
A senior United Nations official warned last year, however, that al-Qaeda was still "heavily embedded" within Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says government forces are fully capable of keeping insurgents at bay, but many believe the withdrawal could cast Afghanistan back into the grip of the Taliban.
How can the West fight terror after leaving Afghanistan?
20 years in Afghanistan: Was it worth it?
Mr Biden has pledged that the US will continue to support Afghanistan after pulling troops out, but not "militarily".
Afghanistan's leaders say Afghan security forces are capable of keeping the Taliban's fighters at bay
Writing in the Washington Post on Tuesday, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said his country was willing to be a "partner for peace in Afghanistan" with the US, but would not host US bases.
He said Pakistan had previously made mistakes by choosing between warring parties in neighbouring Afghanistan, and pledged to work with anyone who enjoyed the confidence of the Afghan people.
Afghan leaders have long accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban. The country's co-operation is seen as critical to US withdrawal goals.
Mr Khan said recently that he would "absolutely not" allow the CIA into Pakistan to conduct cross-border counter-terrorism missions against al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group or the Taliban.
Taliban launch major offensives in northern Afghanistan
Afghan Commando forces are seen at the site of a battle field where they clash with the Taliban insurgent in Kunduz province
Tue, June 22, 2021
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have conducted a wave of offensives in Afghanistan's north in recent days, moving beyond their southern strongholds as international forces withdraw.
The United Nations' envoy for Afghanistan said the Taliban had taken more than 50 of 370 districts and was positioned to take control of provincial capitals.
Fierce fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has taken place on the outskirts of three provincial capitals in the northern provinces of Faryab, Balkh and Kunduz provinces in recent days, officials said.
Since the United States announced plans in April to withdraw its troops with no conditions by Sept. 11 after nearly 20 years of conflict, violence has escalated throughout the country as the Taliban seeks more territory.
Peace talks in Doha have largely stalled, officials say, though there have been meetings in recent days and the Taliban say they are committed to talks.
The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons urged the Security Council to do all it could to push the parties back to the negotiating table.
"Increased conflict in Afghanistan means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far," she said.
The latest surge in the north is outside the Taliban's traditional strongholds in southern districts such as Helmand and Kandahar where major fighting had previously taken place.
"The Taliban's strategy is to make inroads and have a strong presence in the northern region of the country that long resisted the insurgent group," said a senior Afghan security official on condition of anonymity.
"They would face less resistance in other parts of the country where they have more influence and presence."
Local officials in Kunduz said the Taliban on Tuesday seized Shir Khan port, a commercial local town situated on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Ghulam Rabbani, a provincial council member, said fighting was also ongoing outside Kunduz's provincial capital and people were fleeing the city. The defence ministry said Afghan forces had recaptured key districts from the Taliban in Kunduz and operations were ongoing.
Local officials and Taliban members said the Taliban had reached the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh's capital, on Monday evening before retreating.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group's leadership had asked fighters to return after they reached the entrance of Mazar-i-Sharif as their top leadership did not want to seize provinces until all U.S. forces had left.
The United States began withdrawing troops on May 1 and has handed some bases over to the Afghan government, which has since given up some areas to the Taliban without a fight.
The government admits the Taliban have captured a number of districts and security forces have made "tactical retreats".
The crumbling morale of Afghan forces has raised fears of a Taliban military take over once the withdrawal of foreign forces is complete.
The security official said the government was not abandoning areas to the Taliban, but was retreating from some districts temporarily for tactical reasons as they sought to preserve stretched resources.
"Fighting has fiercely increased in recent weeks and now our main focus is to hold strategic areas and not to further stretch our forces," he said.
(Reporting by Kabul bureau; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York, Berlin bureau and Pakistan newsroom; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
US may slow Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban win series of victories
Ben Farmer
Tue, June 22, 2021,
Afghan Commando forces are seen at the site of a battle field where they clash with the Taliban insurgent in Kunduz province, Afghanistan June 22, 2021. REUTERS
America could slow down its withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rapid battlefield gains by the Taliban which have raised alarm in Nato capitals, the Pentagon said.
Ashraf Ghani's forces have been swept out of many rural areas since the insurgents launched a nationwide offensive at the start of May.
Joe Biden has promised all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by September, but in recent weeks officials had briefed that the pull out was ahead of schedule and could be complete as early as July.
John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said September remained the deadline and the pace could be adjusted by conditions.
"The situation in Afghanistan changes as the Taliban continue to conduct these attacks and to raid district centres as well as the violence, which is still too high," he told reporters.
Afghan security forces have reportedly been surrendering in large number - Reuters
“If there needs to be changes made to the pace, or to the scope and scale of the retrograde, on any given day or in any given week, we want to maintain the flexibility to do that," he said.
"We're constantly taking a look at this, every single day: what's the situation on the ground, what capabilities do we have, what additional resources do we need to move out of Afghanistan and at what pace."
"All of these decisions are literally being made in real time," he added.
Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan was on Tuesday one of the Taliban's latest gains.
We are seeing mass surrenders of Afghan security forces," Kabul-based journalist Bilal Sarwary told the BBC. The Taliban have shared videos on their WhatsApp channels and websites showing government soldiers surrendering and being told to go home.
The onslaught had taken 50 of 370 districts in Afghanistan since May according to the United Nations special envoy.
Deborah Lyons told the U.N. Security Council that the announcement earlier this year that foreign troops would withdraw sent a "seismic tremor" through Afghanistan.
"Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn," the former Canadian diplomat said.
The seizure of Shir Khan Bandar, about 30 miles from Kunduz city, came a day after the Taliban had encircled the city.
"Unfortunately this morning and after an hour of fighting the Taliban captured Shir Khan port and the town and all the border check posts with Tajikistan," said Kunduz provincial council member Khaliddin Hakmi.
Separately, an army officer told AFP: "We were forced to leave all check posts... and some of our soldiers crossed the border into Tajikistan."
America has already turned over several of its last remaining bases to the Afghan forces and generals say more than half of the last stage of withdrawal is complete.
Mr Kirby said US forces continued to support Afghan troops in fighting the Taliban, but that would soon no longer be possible.
"So long as we have the capability in Afghanistan, we will continue to provide assistance to Afghan forces," he said
"But as the retrograde gets closer to completion, those capabilities will wane and will no longer be available."
Ben Farmer
Tue, June 22, 2021,
Afghan Commando forces are seen at the site of a battle field where they clash with the Taliban insurgent in Kunduz province, Afghanistan June 22, 2021. REUTERS
America could slow down its withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rapid battlefield gains by the Taliban which have raised alarm in Nato capitals, the Pentagon said.
Ashraf Ghani's forces have been swept out of many rural areas since the insurgents launched a nationwide offensive at the start of May.
Joe Biden has promised all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by September, but in recent weeks officials had briefed that the pull out was ahead of schedule and could be complete as early as July.
John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, said September remained the deadline and the pace could be adjusted by conditions.
"The situation in Afghanistan changes as the Taliban continue to conduct these attacks and to raid district centres as well as the violence, which is still too high," he told reporters.
Afghan security forces have reportedly been surrendering in large number - Reuters
“If there needs to be changes made to the pace, or to the scope and scale of the retrograde, on any given day or in any given week, we want to maintain the flexibility to do that," he said.
"We're constantly taking a look at this, every single day: what's the situation on the ground, what capabilities do we have, what additional resources do we need to move out of Afghanistan and at what pace."
"All of these decisions are literally being made in real time," he added.
Afghanistan's main border crossing with Tajikistan was on Tuesday one of the Taliban's latest gains.
We are seeing mass surrenders of Afghan security forces," Kabul-based journalist Bilal Sarwary told the BBC. The Taliban have shared videos on their WhatsApp channels and websites showing government soldiers surrendering and being told to go home.
The onslaught had taken 50 of 370 districts in Afghanistan since May according to the United Nations special envoy.
Deborah Lyons told the U.N. Security Council that the announcement earlier this year that foreign troops would withdraw sent a "seismic tremor" through Afghanistan.
"Those districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn," the former Canadian diplomat said.
The seizure of Shir Khan Bandar, about 30 miles from Kunduz city, came a day after the Taliban had encircled the city.
"Unfortunately this morning and after an hour of fighting the Taliban captured Shir Khan port and the town and all the border check posts with Tajikistan," said Kunduz provincial council member Khaliddin Hakmi.
Separately, an army officer told AFP: "We were forced to leave all check posts... and some of our soldiers crossed the border into Tajikistan."
America has already turned over several of its last remaining bases to the Afghan forces and generals say more than half of the last stage of withdrawal is complete.
Mr Kirby said US forces continued to support Afghan troops in fighting the Taliban, but that would soon no longer be possible.
"So long as we have the capability in Afghanistan, we will continue to provide assistance to Afghan forces," he said
"But as the retrograde gets closer to completion, those capabilities will wane and will no longer be available."
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