Wednesday 11th August 2021
“Afghans have to fight themselves”
Biden sees the Taliban militarily inferior
After the international troop withdrawal, the USA comes to a sober assessment of the military situation: The Afghan government army is militarily superior to the Islamists, says US President Biden. Now the Afghans would have to fight for their land themselves.
According to US President Joe Biden, the fight against the militant Islamist Taliban is now a matter for the Afghans. In view of the recent advance of the Islamists after the extensive withdrawal of international troops, Biden said in the White House on Tuesday that the Afghans now have to “fight for their own state”. Their armed forces are militarily superior to the Taliban, also in terms of troop strength. “But they must also want to fight,” said Biden. The US president also appealed to the political leadership in Kabul to pull together. Literally he said: “I think they are beginning to understand that they have to come together politically at the top.”
Biden promised that the US would continue to support the Afghan security forces financially and militarily. He is informed of the situation every day. With a view to the withdrawal of the US soldiers ordered by him, the President added: “But I do not regret my decision.” At the time of the decision, the US still had around 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan. According to the military, the withdrawal is now more than 95 percent complete. It should be completely over by the end of the month. The Bundeswehr and soldiers from other NATO countries have already left Afghanistan. Since the withdrawal of international troops began in early May, the Taliban have conquered many territories.
Eight provincial cities fell
On Tuesday they took the eighth provincial capital in quick succession. According to initially unconfirmed reports, the city of Faisabad is said to have fallen into the hands of the Islamists in the evening. Despite the advance of the Taliban, the US government believes that the security forces in Afghanistan have sufficient “equipment, troops and training” to fight the militant Islamist group. This will strengthen the Afghan government for the negotiations on a political solution to the conflict, said the spokeswoman for US President Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, in Washington. The US government is convinced that only a negotiated solution will “successfully bring peace and stability” to Afghanistan.
The US Department of Defense had already pointed out the day before that the Afghan armed forces were militarily superior to the Taliban. The Taliban also had no air force, it said. She did not comment on recent reports that the Taliban were targeting US-trained Afghan Air Force pilots. The fact that the Taliban captured state-of-the-art weapons when the government troops withdrew was also not an issue in Washington’s assessment. According to the current schedule, the US wants to withdraw its last soldiers by the end of the month.
Mazar-i-Sharif cut off by land
During the day, the Taliban captured Pul-i Chumri, a town of 250,000 in Baghlan province in the north. This was confirmed by three provincial councils in the evening. The land route between the capital Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif is now cut off.
According to Provincial Councilor Firusuddin Aimak, government forces left the city that evening without further resistance. Several commanders and other officials had already left Pul-i Chumri 10 or 15 days ago and announced that they would attack the Islamists from another route. The remaining forces would have withstood a few more days, but have now withdrawn to a military base outside.
Pul-i Chumri is located on an important overland road between Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, where the Bundeswehr had a base until recently. The city is the second largest city in the northeast of the country after Kunduz.
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