‘Highly unlikely’ Taliban will overrun Afghanistan, Biden said in July When President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by a September 11 deadline, the president told reporters in July that it remained “highly unlikely” the Taliban would take control of the country. “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning […]

The historical vectors are moving with conviction and purpose; the weak and lacking in conviction are in retreat and the gun is doing the talking. The government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the security services and the Afghan National Army, seem to be either huddled in despair, capitulating or fleeing before the inexorable advance of the Taliban. They have the […]

On August 11, 2021, Pakistan’s Prime Minster Imran Khan said, “I tried to persuade the Taliban… three to four months back when they came here…The condition is that as long as [Afghanistan’s President] Ashraf Ghani is there, we [Taliban] are not going to talk to the Afghan government.” Three days later, news has arrived that Ghani is pondering over resignation, […]

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Taliban has left Afghanistan, just hours after the insurgency’s forces surrounded the nation’s capital city of Kabul Sunday — all but ensuring the collapse of the national government and a return to rule by the insurgent group for the first time in two decades. Ghani and his immediate team have left the country, according to Afghan […]

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country on Sunday as Taliban militants entered the capital city of Kabul. Ghani flew to neighboring Tajikistan, a senior Afghan Interior Ministry official told Reuters. However, the Afghan president’s office said it “cannot say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons.” “That’s it. It’s over,” a U.S. official told Fox News regarding the […]

With the Taliban sweeping through provincial capitals, and massing near Kabul, the Afghan government is thus far vowing to resist. In this Q&A, Crisis Group experts Laurel Miller and Andrew Watkins explain that outside powers’ priority should now be to minimise further human suffering. Have the Taliban won the war? The war is not over, but the past week’s events […]

The administration of President Ashraf Ghani vowed Friday to defend its capital, Kabul, from the Taliban, while efforts by Abdullah Abdullah, head of the country’s National Reconciliation Council, to strike a political deal with the group seemed be gaining momentum. “It was decided with conviction & resolve that we stand firm against Taliban terrorists & do [everything] to strengthen the […]

Taliban fighters carrying out a blitzkrieg-like offensive across Afghanistan appear to have the capital, Kabul, in their sights, advancing toward the city even as the first of thousands of U.S. troops to be sent back to the country set foot on the ground. The Taliban on Friday claimed victory in five major provincial capitals, including the country’s second- and third-largest […]

The Taliban has captured three major Afghan cities and a string of provincial capitals in a sweeping offensive that threatens the capital, Kabul. In the past 24 hours, Taliban fighters have seized Herat and Kandahar — the country’s second- and third-largest cities — as well as Lashkar Gah, the capital of southwestern Helmand Province. The insurgents on August 13 also […]

After 20 years, Biden finally got the US military out of Afghanistan. Even though it can seem to signal the end of an era for US interventionism, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Leaving Afghanistan is simply a necessary step in America’s new chapter of interventionism in China’s neighbourhood, argues Hew Strachan. What was shocking about President Biden’s decision […]