バイデン政権は、来月中にアフガン政府が崩壊する可能性に備えていると、政権と軍の関係者が語った。
タリバンは北部を急速に前進し、アフガニスタンの治安部隊は南部と西部で縮小し続ける領土を守るために戦っているため、バイデン政権はアメリカ人を撤退させる計画を加速させている。
バイデン氏は、水曜日の夜と木曜日の朝に国家安全保障のトップアドバイザーと会合した後、特別移民ビザの申請を審査するために、米国で働いたことのあるアフガニスタン人のために、国外への迅速なフライトを追加することも命じた。
大使館は一連の警告の中でも最新のものを送り、アメリカ人に「利用可能な民間航空機を使って直ちにアフガニスタンを離れるように」と呼びかけました。
ワシントンでは、国務省のネッド・プライス報道官が、約1,400人のアメリカ市民を含む約4,000人の大使館員のうち、不特定多数の民間人の削減を直ちに開始すると発表しました。
「私たちがずっと言ってきたように、タリバンの軍事行動のテンポが速くなり、その結果、アフガニスタン全土で暴力と不安定性が増加していることは、重大な懸念である」と彼は述べた。「大使館員の安全を確保するための最善の方法を決定するために、毎日、治安状況を評価しています」。
しかし、プライス氏は、「このことを明確にしておきたい。大使館は開いたままです」と付け加えた。
3人の米政府高官によると、アメリカの交渉担当者は、タリバンがカブールの政府を引き継いだ場合、カブールのアメリカ大使館を攻撃しないという保証を引き出すことにも取り組んでいるという。
タリバンは北部を急速に前進し、アフガニスタンの治安部隊は南部と西部で縮小し続ける領土を守るために戦っているため、バイデン政権はアメリカ人を撤退させる計画を加速させている。
バイデン氏は、水曜日の夜と木曜日の朝に国家安全保障のトップアドバイザーと会合した後、特別移民ビザの申請を審査するために、米国で働いたことのあるアフガニスタン人のために、国外への迅速なフライトを追加することも命じた。
大使館は一連の警告の中でも最新のものを送り、アメリカ人に「利用可能な民間航空機を使って直ちにアフガニスタンを離れるように」と呼びかけました。
ワシントンでは、国務省のネッド・プライス報道官が、約1,400人のアメリカ市民を含む約4,000人の大使館員のうち、不特定多数の民間人の削減を直ちに開始すると発表しました。
「私たちがずっと言ってきたように、タリバンの軍事行動のテンポが速くなり、その結果、アフガニスタン全土で暴力と不安定性が増加していることは、重大な懸念である」と彼は述べた。「大使館員の安全を確保するための最善の方法を決定するために、毎日、治安状況を評価しています」。
しかし、プライス氏は、「このことを明確にしておきたい。大使館は開いたままです」と付け加えた。
3人の米政府高官によると、アメリカの交渉担当者は、タリバンがカブールの政府を引き継いだ場合、カブールのアメリカ大使館を攻撃しないという保証を引き出すことにも取り組んでいるという。
タリバン権力はやがて中共に移行するので商売の継続を保証するための「ノリしろ」として大使館が物理的に必要と考えている。
Afghanistan Live Updates: U.S. Prepares Airlift as Cities Fall to Taliban With Stunning Speed
The insurgents continued to rout Afghan forces, amid calls for President Ashraf Ghani to step down, and Biden administration dispatched 3,000 troops to help evacuate American and Afghan civilians.
RIGHT NOWThe Taliban seek to isolate Kabul, the Pentagon says.
Here’s what you need to know:
Three more major cities are under Taliban control, as the government’s forces near collapse.
Fearing the fall of Kabul in just weeks, the U.S. is sending troops to evacuate Americans.
More isolated than ever, Afghanistan’s president clings to power.
Why has the Afghan military crumbled so quickly in the face of the Taliban offensive?
Afghanistan’s unraveling deepens global doubts about U.S. reliability as an ally.
An Afghan warlord who steadfastly resisted the Taliban surrendered. Others may follow his lead.
In Pictures: The Taliban advance.
Three more major cities are under Taliban control, as the government’s forces near collapse.
Mazar-i-Sharif
Faizabad
Kunduz
Sheberghan
Taliqan
Sar-i-Pul
Pul-i-Khumri
Aybak
Qala-e-Naw
Kabul
Herat
Firoz Koh
Pul-e-Alam
AFGHANISTAN
200 MILES
Ghazni
Farah
Some of the
major cities
seized by Taliban
Lashkar Gah
Kandahar
Zaranj
Taliban controlled districts
Contested districts
Government controlled
Source: FDD’s Long War Journal (control areas as of Aug. 12)
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three major cities in western and southern Afghanistan were confirmed on Friday to have fallen to the Taliban, as the insurgents’ race to take control of the country accelerated.
The Taliban seized Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, on Friday morning after a weekslong battle that left parts of the city in ruins, hospitals filled with the wounded and dying, and residents asking what would come next under their new rulers. Hours earlier, the insurgents had captured Herat, a cultural hub in the west, and Kandahar, the country’s second-largest city, where the Taliban first proclaimed their so-called emirate in the 1990s.
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Taliban Forces Sweep Across Afghanistan
Over the past week the Taliban have captured more than a dozen of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, positioning them well to attack the capital, Kabul, just weeks before U.S. troops are expected to end their military mission there.
We’re focused on he security situation that we face now, which again, we’ve acknowledged is deteriorating. We are certainly mindful of the advances that the Taliban have made in terms of taking over yet — an increased number of provincial capitals. And the other thing I’d say is that no potential outcome has to be inevitable, including the fall of Kabul.
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Taliban Forces Sweep Across Afghanistan
Over the past week the Taliban have captured more than a dozen of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, positioning them well to attack the capital, Kabul, just weeks before U.S. troops are expected to end their military mission there.CreditCredit...Photo by Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
The speed of the cities’ collapse, combined with American officials’ announcement Thursday that they would evacuate most of the United States Embassy, has deepened the sense of panic across the country as thousands try to flee from the Taliban advance.
Only three major Afghan cities — the capital, Kabul, Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif — remain under government control, and one is under siege by the Taliban. With the collapse of both Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, the Taliban now effectively control southern Afghanistan, a powerful symbol of their resurgence, just weeks before the United States is set to completely withdraw from the country.
Over the past week, the Taliban have taken one Afghan city after another in a rapid offensive that has left them well positioned to attack Kabul. The government’s forces appear close to a complete collapse. Some American officials fear that the Afghan government will not last another month.
On Friday, the Taliban also seized Pul-e-Alam, the provincial capital of Logar Province, south of Kabul, and Firoz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor Province, in central Afghanistan.
“Sporadic clashes happened last night, but no serious resistance was reported,” said Gul Zaman Naeb, a member of Parliament representing Ghor Province. “When the people woke up this morning, they saw Taliban fighters in the streets and government offices.”
Helmand Province is a volatile swath of territory, much of which the Taliban have controlled since 2015. In recent months, the Afghan government has struggled to hold ground there, and recent airstrikes in the region by the United States and Afghan air forces failed to stop the Taliban offensive.
Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s capital, has been on the brink of disaster for more than a decade. Helmand has long been home to the Taliban, who spread to the province after the group’s rise in neighboring Kandahar in 1994 and proceeded to make millions there off the illicit sale of opium poppies.
The fall of Lashkar Gah is a sad coda for the American and British military missions in Helmand that, combined, lasted over a decade. Both countries focused much of their efforts on securing the province, losing hundreds of troops to roadside bombs and brutal gunfights there.
Kandahar, in particular, is a huge prize for the Taliban. It is the economic hub of southern Afghanistan, and it was the birthplace of the insurgency in the 1990s, serving as the militants’ capital for part of their five-year rule. By seizing the city, the Taliban can effectively proclaim a return to power, if not complete control.
On Friday, officials from Uruzgan and Zabul, two provinces long considered part of the Taliban’s heartland, said that local elders in both were negotiating a complete handover of the territory to the insurgent group.
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, and Sharif Hassan from Kabul.
— Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Christina Goldbaum
Fearing the fall of Kabul in just weeks, the U.S. is sending troops to evacuate Americans.
President Biden in New Castle, Del., on Thursday. The Biden administration is bracing for a possible collapse of the Afghan government within the next month.
President Biden in New Castle, Del., on Thursday. The Biden administration is bracing for a possible collapse of the Afghan government within the next month.Credit...Tom Brenner for The New York Times
As the Taliban capture provincial capitals with alarming speed, the Pentagon is moving 3,000 Marines and soldiers to Afghanistan and another 4,000 troops to the region to evacuate most of the American Embassy and U.S. citizens in Kabul.
It is a powerful sign of the deteriorating situation in the country as well as one that appears to reinforce President Biden’s order to shut down America’s longest war.
The Biden administration is bracing for a possible collapse of the Afghan government within the next month, administration and military officials said.
The Taliban’s rapid advance across the north, and Afghan security forces’ battle to defend ever shrinking territory in the south and west, has forced the Biden administration to accelerate plans to get Americans out.
Mr. Biden, after meeting with his top national security advisers on Wednesday night and again Thursday morning, also ordered additional expedited flights out of the country for Afghans who have worked with the United States, so that their applications for special immigrant visas could be evaluated.
The embassy sent the latest in a series of alarming alerts, urging Americans to “leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options.”
And in Washington, the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, announced what he described as a drawdown of an unspecified number of civilians among the roughly 4,000 embassy personnel — including about 1,400 American citizens — to begin immediately.
“As we’ve said all along, the increased tempo of the Taliban military engagements and the resulting increase in violence and instability across Afghanistan is of grave concern,” he said. “We’ve been evaluating the security situation every day to determine how best to keep those serving at our embassy safe.”
But, Mr. Price added, “Let me be very clear about this: The embassy remains open.”
American negotiators are also trying to extract assurances from the Taliban that they will not attack the U.S. Embassy in Kabul if they take over the country’s government, three American officials said.
The estimate that Kabul could fall in 30 days is one scenario, and administration and military officials insist that it might still be prevented if the Afghan security forces can muster the resolve to put up more resistance. But while Afghan commandos have managed to continue fighting in some areas, they have largely folded in a number of northern provincial capitals.
— Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Helene Cooper, Lara Jakes and Eric Schmidt
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More isolated than ever, Afghanistan’s president clings to power.
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan at the White House in June.
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan at the White House in June. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Several of his close political associates have surrendered to the Taliban without a fight, or fled into exile. His army has all but collapsed and the warlords he was counting on have proved ineffectual, or are bargaining for their lives.
Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, is more isolated than ever, facing pressure to step aside — and not just from the Taliban. His dominion is shrinking by the day. He rules the capital, Kabul, two other cities in the north and east, and pockets in the interior.
Yet Mr. Ghani is stubbornly clinging to power.
On Wednesday he flew to one of his loyalist redoubts, the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, in attempts to rally pro-government forces. On Thursday, officials said he spoke by phone with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. On Friday he was said to be leading a national security meeting in the Kabul presidential palace.
The Afghan president’s options appear limited. He has little discernible support at home or from his former foreign backers. Street demonstrations supporting his army quickly fizzled out.
Thousands of his soldiers, surrendering en masse, have decided Mr. Ghani is not “worth fighting for,” Omar Zakhilwal, a former finance minister, tweeted Friday.
Far from hinting at resignation, the president has only suggested that he would not run for re-election if the Taliban agreed to elections. Their battlefield rampage appears to have made the offer irrelevant. As his country slips away and provincial capitals fall, Mr. Ghani and his advisers have said little, sometimes even refusing to acknowledge the losses.
Even Mr. Ghani’s substantial corps of bodyguards, said to number in the thousands, poses a potential threat. Many are from villages now controlled by the Taliban.
Leading Afghanistan is a dangerous business. For more than a century, most Afghan rulers have either been killed or died in exile, the Boston University anthropologist Thomas Barfield points out.
Still, if — as seems increasingly likely — Mr. Ghani is deposed by the Taliban, he can lay claim to a singular distinction. “This will be the first insurgency that has ever driven a Kabul government from power, that has also had the backing of a foreign power,” said Mr. Barfield.
The last time the Taliban seized control, in 1996, one former ruler wound up swinging from a lamppost in downtown Kabul and the other fled hundreds of miles to the north to govern a postage-stamp rump state for five years.
Mr. Ghani shows no signs that the cruel lessons of the past sway him any more than the uncertain present and fearful future.
“He’s hunkering down,” said Torhek Farhadi, a former Afghan presidential adviser. “He’s refusing to admit the reality. The news is relayed to him through a filter.”
“Trusted lieutenants surrendered just this morning,” said Mr. Farhadi, referring to the recent capitulations of governors Mr. Ghani appointed in Ghazni and Logar provinces.
“He’s at risk from his own bodyguards,” said Mr. Farhadi. “This is how it happens in Afghanistan. The last days of any leader are like this.”
Mr. Ghazni’s youthful finance minister, Khalid Payenda, fled the country several days ago.
Leadership characteristics that in the past merely aggravated his fellow citizens — Mr. Ghani’s refusal to delegate authority or listen to others more knowledgeable than himself, especially on military matters — are now proving lethal to the Afghan state.
“He is isolated, confused, and deeply mistrustful of everyone,” said Tamim Asey, a former deputy minister of defense. “He doesn’t know how to reverse this. I don’t see signs that he has a program.”
Unless a compromise can be reached, Mr. Asey said, “I would say that Kabul could become a blood bath very soon.”
The Taliban have said that the fighting will not end unless Mr. Ghani is removed. As the “polarizing figure” in Mr. Farhadi’s words, Mr. Ghani has “demeaned the Taliban time and time again, saying, ‘you are the stooges of the Pakistanis.’” In return, the Taliban see him as the “stooge” of the Americans.
Analysts place much of the blame for the current disaster on the head of Mr. Ghani, a former World Bank anthropologist and published author with an outsized faith in his own intellect.
The Americans tried to construct republican institutions on Afghan soil, but they proved to be a flimsy facade. Instead, Mr. Ghani personalized power to disastrous effect.
“He needed the militias in the north and west,” yet showed contempt for their leaders. On Friday a key militia leader in the western city of Herat, Ismail Khan, surrendered to the Taliban.
Mr. Ghani “did not take advice from anybody,” said Mr. Barfield, of Boston University. “If he had delegated power to the military, it might have been saved. Now, it’s a case of reality biting.”
— Adam Nossiter
Why has the Afghan military crumbled so quickly in the face of the Taliban offensive?
U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Division oversaw the training of the 215th Corps of the Afghan National Army at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in early 2016.
U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Division oversaw the training of the 215th Corps of the Afghan National Army at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in early 2016.Credit...Adam Ferguson for The New York Times
While the future of Afghanistan seems more and more uncertain, one thing is becoming exceedingly clear: The United States’ 20-year endeavor to rebuild Afghanistan’s military into a robust and independent fighting force has failed, and that failure is now playing out in real time as the country slips into Taliban control.
The Afghan military’s disintegration first became apparent months ago, in an accumulation of losses that started even before President Biden’s announcement that the United States would withdraw by Sept. 11.
It began with individual outposts in rural areas where hungry and ammunition-depleted soldiers and police units were surrounded by Taliban fighters and promised safe passage if they surrendered and left behind their equipment, slowly giving the insurgents more and more control of roads, then entire districts. As positions collapsed, the complaint was almost always the same: There was no air support or they had run out of supplies and food.
But even before that, the systemic weaknesses of the Afghan security forces — which on paper numbered somewhere around 300,000 people, but in recent days have totaled around just one-sixth of that, according to U.S. officials — were apparent. These shortcomings can be traced to numerous issues that sprung from the West’s insistence on building a fully modern military with all the logistical and supply complexities one requires, and which has proved unsustainable without the United States and its NATO allies.
Soldiers and policemen have expressed ever-deeper resentment of the Afghan leadership. Officials often turned a blind eye to what was happening, knowing full well that the Afghan forces’ real manpower count was far lower than what was on the books, skewed by corruption and secrecy that they quietly accepted.
And when the Taliban started building momentum after the United States’ announcement of withdrawal, it only increased the belief that fighting in the security forces — fighting for President Ashraf Ghani’s government — wasn’t worth dying for. In interview after interview, soldiers and police officers described moments of despair and feelings of abandonment.
— Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fahim Abed and Sharif Hassan
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Afghanistan’s unraveling deepens global doubts about U.S. reliability as an ally.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan last month in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, with President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan last month in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.Credit...Associated Press
BRUSSELS — Afghanistan’s rapid unraveling is raising grumblings about American credibility, compounding the wounds of the Trump years and reinforcing the idea that America’s backing for its allies is not unlimited.
The Taliban’s lightning advance comes at a moment when many in Europe and Asia had hoped that President Biden would reestablish America’s firm presence in international affairs, especially as China and Russia angle to extend their influence.
“When Biden says ‘America is back,’ many people will say, ‘Yes, America is back home,’” said François Heisbourg, a French defense analyst.
“Few will gang up on the U.S. for finally stopping a failed enterprise,” he said of the war in Afghanistan. “Most people would say it should have happened a long time ago.’’
But in the longer run, he added, “the notion that you cannot count on the Americans will strike deeper roots because of Afghanistan.’’ The United States has been pulling back from military engagements abroad since President Obama, he noted.
Doubt about American commitment will be felt especially strongly among countries where China and Russia are vying for power.
“The sudden withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years and so much investment in lives and effort will see allies and potential allies around the world wondering whether they have to decide between democracies and autocracies, and realize some democracies don’t have staying power anymore,” said Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
European nations have never viewed Afghanistan as a vital national interest, but it has become more of a concern as more people flee violence and poverty there, and seek refuge in Europe.
European leaders, like others around the world, are worried about how long the Afghan government will last, about what will happen to women and girls and judges and the media under a renewed Taliban rule, and about a new wave of migration.
For NATO, the mantra was always “in together, out together.” Once President Biden decided to pull the plug, NATO troops also began leaving at speed; there is little appetite for returning.バイデン政権は、来月中にアフガン政府が崩壊する可能性に備えていると、政権と軍の関係者が語った。
タリバンは北部を急速に前進し、アフガニスタンの治安部隊は南部と西部で縮小し続ける領土を守るために戦っているため、バイデン政権はアメリカ人を撤退させる計画を加速させている。
バイデン氏は、水曜日の夜と木曜日の朝に国家安全保障のトップアドバイザーと会合した後、特別移民ビザの申請を審査するために、米国で働いたことのあるアフガニスタン人のために、国外への迅速なフライトを追加することも命じた。
大使館は一連の警告の中でも最新のものを送り、アメリカ人に「利用可能な民間航空機を使って直ちにアフガニスタンを離れるように」と呼びかけました。
ワシントンでは、国務省のネッド・プライス報道官が、約1,400人のアメリカ市民を含む約4,000人の大使館員のうち、不特定多数の民間人の削減を直ちに開始すると発表しました。
「私たちがずっと言ってきたように、タリバンの軍事行動のテンポが速くなり、その結果、アフガニスタン全土で暴力と不安定性が増加していることは、重大な懸念である」と彼は述べた。「大使館員の安全を確保するための最善の方法を決定するために、毎日、治安状況を評価しています」。
しかし、プライス氏は、「このことを明確にしておきたい。大使館は開いたままです」と付け加えた。
3人の米政府高官によると、アメリカの交渉担当者は、タリバンがカブールの政府を引き継いだ場合、カブールのアメリカ大使館を攻撃しないという保証を引き出すことにも取り組んでいるという。
www.DeepL.com/Translator（無料版）で翻訳しました。
