It is a rapid conquest: more and more districts in Afghanistan have come under the control of the Taliban since the international troops announced their withdrawal from the crisis state.
Of the major cities in the country, the Afghan government only holds the capital Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east.
In view of this rapid conquest, US intelligence services expect that Kabul could also fall to the Islamists in 30 to 90 days.
The Washington Post reported this week, citing unnamed sources.
Check out the animated map where the Taliban have conquered more and more territories in the past few weeks:
Herat, the third largest city in Afghanistan, is now largely under the control of the Taliban, according to a government official. The government troops would only control the airport and an army camp in the city of 600,000 people on the border with Iran, a government official reported. "Families have either left town or are hiding in their homes."
The Allies are now concentrating on securing their retreat. The USA is sending 3,000 additional soldiers into the country. They are to strengthen security at Kabul airport and thus support the departure of embassy staff, said the spokesman for the US Department of Defense. It is not known how many employees will stay at the embassy. In addition, the US is moving up to 4,000 more soldiers to Kuwait and 1,000 to Qatar - in the event that reinforcements are needed.
Britain announced the deployment of an additional 600 special forces to assist the departure of British citizens.
The Internet portal »Politico« quoted a senior official in London as saying that the situation was comparable to »the last helicopter from Saigon«.
This means the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in the 1970s.
Ambassador Laurie Bristow and a small team stayed in the country but would move to a "safer" location in Kabul, the British government said.
According to media reports, there are still around 4,000 British people in Afghanistan.
US President Joe Biden declared in the White House on Thursday that the Afghans now have to "fight for their own state". An influential British foreign policy maker criticized the withdrawal of the US and its allies from Afghanistan. "With the decision to withdraw, the carpet was pulled from under our partners' feet," tweeted Tom Tugendhat, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament. After 20 years, billions of dollars and thousands of human lives, the end of the mission is "unnecessary and wasteful."
“This is bad for us - it makes us seem unreliable.
It's bad for our allies - it exposes them.
It's bad for our future - rivals are encouraged to challenge us, ”wrote the conservative politician.
“And it didn't have to happen.
We decided to go.
We weren't forced. "
as / rie / wod / AFP / dpa / Reuters