Biden authorizes additional troops to Kabul as Taliban closes in on capital

The Taliban’s blitz across Afghanistan pushed closer to Kabul on Saturday, as U.S. diplomats appealed to the militants to stop the advance and President Biden warned that any moves to threaten American personnel or interests would be met with “a swift and strong” military response from the thousands of U.S. troops flooding into the capital.

In a statement, the president said that approximately 5,000 U.S. troops will be deployed to oversee the evacuation of U.S. diplomats, Afghans who have worked with coalition forces throughout the war and others at “special risk from the Taliban advance.” A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive and evolving situation, said that an additional 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division would join a force of about 4,000 soldiers and Marines either already on the ground or arriving soon.

In Qatar’s capital, Doha, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Taliban political leaders who demanded an end to intensifying U.S. airstrikes aimed at slowing the fast-moving push by Taliban forces to gain territory, occupy provincial capitals and hold key roadways. With Kabul squarely in the Taliban’s crosshairs, the fate of the Afghanistan’s Western-allied government hung in the balance. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in his first public appearance since the Taliban’s stunning advance over the past week, said he was turning to the international community for help even as events appeared to be overtaking him and his administration.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Aug. 14 he was in talks with local and international partners as Taliban rebels approached Kabul, the country's capital. (Reuters)

The Taliban now hold more than half of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, with more than a dozen major cities having fallen in the past week. On Saturday, the militants appeared to have full control of Logar province, bringing fighters as close as seven miles from Kabul, a provincial lawmaker, Hoda Ahmadi, told the Associated Press. Logar’s flatlands, ringed by mountains, serve as an important gateway to Kabul, with roadways connecting to cities to the south.

Meanwhile, Taliban fighters broke the defenses in northern Afghanistan’s main city, Mazar-e Sharif, where Ghani had flown days earlier to rally pro-government forces. Its fall gives the insurgents full hold of the north and the critical routes to Central Asia.

Abas Ebrahimzada, a lawmaker from Balkh province where the city is located, told the Associated Press that the army first surrendered in Mazar-e Sharif amid a multipronged assault by the Taliban. That led pro-government militias and other forces to lay down their weapons, Ebrahimzada said.

The many battle fronts have pushed Afghanistan toward a potential humanitarian catastrophe as tens of thousands of people flee their homes amid the swift advance of Taliban insurgents.

Inside Kabul, scenes were reminiscent of the Taliban’s rise in the mid-1990s â€" with families selling everything and doing whatever they could to flee the country. Many fear a return to the repressive and brutal rule the Taliban inflicted when it was last in power, rooted in an extreme interpretation of Islamic law. Civilians are already reporting shuttered girls’ schools, poor families forced to cook food for ravenous fighters and young men pressured to join the ranks of the militants.

In a statement taking stock of its battlefield victories, the Taliban on Saturday sought to project itself as Afghanistan’s rightful rulers, appealing for calm and claiming no harm would come to those who’ve aided the American-led military campaign or held jobs in the central government. Rather, those people would be granted “amnesty.”

“We assure all our neighbors that we will not create any problems for them,” the statement asserts. “We also assure all the diplomats, embassies, consulates, and charitable workers, whether they are international or national that not only no problems will be created for them … but security and a secure environment will be provided to them.”

The U.S. argument to the Taliban is that if it avoids a direct confrontation with the 5,000 U.S. troops arriving in Kabul and waits for the completion of the evacuation, that increases the likelihood that both the international community and Afghans will accept the Taliban’s entry into the capital.

Ghani has proposed waiting at least a week for a government delegation with a plan for a new power-sharing agreement to arrive in Doha. But that timetable was seen as unrealistic amid the fast-shifting developments, according to people familiar with the situation who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the unfolding events.

Any political settlement at this point is likely to be tantamount to full Taliban control, even if it includes elements of power-sharing with nonmilitant political figures and power brokers. The Taliban, however, has been adamant that Ghani cannot remain in power.

Ghani’s recorded address, aired on national television Saturday, appeared in part to be directed toward boosting the rapidly flagging morale and effectiveness of Afghanistan’s security forces. While the Americans want at all costs to avoid a direct confrontation between the Taliban and U.S. troops, the extent to which the Afghan military will resist the militants’ entry into Kabul is unclear.

Ghani said he was in talks with international partners and political groups inside the country in an effort not to “lose the gains of the past 20 years.”

He did not offer specifics on what he expected from world leaders, other than to say that his first priority was “organizing the Afghan forces” â€" many of which have crumbled in the face of the Taliban’s rapid advance. He said consultations have begun with elders, political leaders and international allies. “Soon the results will be shared with you,” he said.

Ghani also expressed concern about the thousands of displaced Afghans who have fled to the relative safety of Kabul in recent weeks, and who could fan a fresh wave of refugees moving into neighboring countries and beyond.

The insurgents also seized the capital of Paktika, an eastern province bordering Pakistan, lawmaker Khalid Asad confirmed to the AP. Early Saturday, he said, fighting had broken out in the capital, Sharana, and lasted until local elders intervened to negotiate a pullout. Local officials, including the governor, left for Kabul after surrendering.

Biden indicated in his statement that he instructed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to work with Ghani and other Afghan leaders “as they seek to prevent further bloodshed and pursue a political settlement” with the Taliban. The president also announced that Tracey Jacobson, a longtime State Department official, would oversee the frenzied effort “to process, transport, and relocate” the thousands of Afghan civilians who’ve aided the United States throughout the war and now face imminent danger.

About 1,200 Afghans have been transported to the United States in recent days, and the Biden administration has committed to temporarily relocating another 4,000 applicants and their families to other countries while their immigration paperwork is finalized.

Canadian officials on Friday committed to bringing 20,000 refugees to the country, focusing on those most in danger, including women leaders, human rights advocates, journalists, LGBTQ individuals, persecuted religious groups and families of interpreters already resettled in Canada. No timeline was given for the resettlements.

These official rescue efforts account for only a fraction of Afghans displaced by the conflict. A quarter-million people have fled their homes since the end of May, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said. Of them, most â€" 80 percent â€" are women and children. Some 400,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of the year.

“While most people have fled as close to home as hostilities permit, some have reportedly been trapped in their homes by continuing fighting,” Catherine Stubberfield, senior communications officer for the UNHCR regional bureau for Asia, told The Washington Post.

“The situation has all the hallmarks of a humanitarian catastrophe,” Tomson Phiri, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, said in a statement, noting that the conflict “has accelerated much faster than we all anticipated.”

The UNHCR has appealed to neighboring countries to “keep their borders open” or risk “innumerable civilian lives.” In just the past month, more than 1,000 people have been killed or injured in indiscriminate attacks against civilians, particularly in Helmand, Kandahar and Herat provinces, according to the United Nations.

Rory Stewart, a former international development secretary in the British government who has criticized the decisions by the United States and Britain to withdraw troops, warned that millions of Afghans could become refugees.

“This is going to feel like Iraq and Syria,” he told Sky News. “This is going to be a barely governed space, teetering on the edge of civil war and run by an extreme Islamist group.”

Pannett reported from Sydney, George from Kabul, and Westfall and DeYoung from Washington. Ezzatullah Mehrdad in Kabul contributed to this report.

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