After fighting the United States to a standstill over 20 years of war, the Taliban has toppled the Afghan government in a matter of days. The speed of the offensive that culminated in the fall of Kabul without a shot being fired last Sunday has stunned the world and even surprised Taliban leaders themselves.
Beginning with a swift advance through rural districts as the US prepared to leave Afghanistan, Taliban overran the entire country in just six weeks, seizing every major city as government forces capitulated. The Times traces the final, extraordinary phase of the onslaught.
After a lightning advance through rural districts over the previous month, the Taliban scored its first major victory, seizing the town of Shir Khan Bandar, on the northern border with Tajikistan. Hundreds of Afghan troops fled across the border to escape.
Built by the US Army Corps of Engineers at a cost of $40 million, the customs house at Shir Khan Bandar and the 670-metre bridge over the Panj river into Tajikistan, was once hailed as a showcase for the American project to rebuild Afghanistan.
Just hours after US troops leave Bagram air base, a lynchpin of the American war effort throughout the 20-year conflict, Taliban fighters surrounded the northern city of Faizabad, in Badakhshan province. More than 1,000 troops flee into Tajikistan.
General Austin Scott Miller, the outgoing commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, admitted that the security situation was dire. “I don’t like leaving friends in need,” he said.
With fighting on the outskirts of Faizabad, footage emerged of local officials jostling to board a plane out of the city, provoking fury.
“Those who can have abandoned the city, by air of course,” one resident, Abdul, told The Times. Voicing a suspicion that will recur throughout Afghanistan during the Taliban advance, he said: “Most districts in Badakhshan are falling without any fighting. Many believe that officials have done a secret deal with the Taliban.”
As General Scott Miller stepped down from his command at a ceremony in Kabul, news emerged that at least ten major cities had been encircled by the Taliban. Fighting is reported in cities to the north, south and west of the country, including Kandahar, Ghazni and Lashkar Gah, to Pul-e-Khumri and Taluqan in the north. In the western city of Qala-i-Naw, overrun by the Taliban, Afghan commandos are airlifted in to drive the insurgents back.
“The fighting in Lashkar Gah is terrible. Mortar shells are everywhere. It seems government forces are surrendering,” one resident of Lashkar Gah said.
General Miller was replaced by General Frank McKenzie, to oversee the American withdrawal from US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
The Taliban seized the strategic border crossing into Pakistan, planting its flag at the frontier and collecting customs revenue from lorries at one of Afghanistan’s biggest trade gateways. The loss of Spin Boldak was the most humiliating blow yet to the beleaguered government of President Ghani. Repeated counterattacks by Afghan forces to retake the town were repelled by the insurgents after fierce fighting.
Among those killed was the award-winning Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui, who was embedded with Afghan troops as they battled to reclaim Spin Boldak. Two days before his death, he tweeted graphic footage of the fighting.
With Spin Boldak taken, Taliban fighters advanced north on Afghanistan’s prized second city, Kandahar, the former capital of the Islamist regime in the 1990s and the spiritual home of the movement. Militants were soon fighting deep within the suburbs on three sides, advancing to within a mile of the centre. Afghan troops and local militias resisted wave after wave of Taliban attacks, including scores of suicide bombers sent to blast through government lines.
As fighting raged, a vast refugee crisis began to unfold. In Kandahar alone, more than 150,000 people fled the conflict, cramming into makeshift refugee camps or heading north for Kabul.
The exodus was fuelled by mounting reports of Taliban atrocities in districts they had overrun. As graphic footage emerged of Taliban gunmen executing Afghan security forces, one Kandahar police chief claimed to The Times that close to 1,000 people had been murdered in the province, as militants hunted down government supporters in hiding. Citing the murder of dissenting tribal elders and clerics, Human Rights Watch accused the Taliban of war crimes.
President Ghani spoke to President Biden, confirming that his government had sought continued US military support for Afghan forces after the American withdrawal, scheduled to be completed by August 31.
“President Biden . . . reassured me that support for the ANDSF [Afghan National Defence and Security Forces] will continue. We have confidence that they will protect and defend Afghanistan,” Ghani tweeted.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that the Taliban had “strategic momentum” on the battlefield and declined to rule out “a complete Taliban takeover”.
Alarmed at the speed and scale of the collapse by Afghan forces, the US confirmed it had stepped up airstrikes against the Taliban. With more than a dozen cities now surrounded, the Pentagon hinted that it could continue airstrikes beyond the August 31 withdrawal date.
All US warplanes had now left Afghanistan, however, with airstrikes launched from bases in the Persian Gulf. The US-trained Afghan air force struggled to fill the gap, beset by maintenance problems as American contractors left the country. Afghan pilots were reportedly exhausted by relentless calls for support from desperate troops on the ground across the country.
“I’m not going to kid you and say it’s going to be easy. It will be far more difficult than it was in the past,” said McKenzie, commander of US Central Command. “We will do everything in our power to keep that air force effective, flying, and in support of their forces.”
Powerless to halt the Taliban advance, President Ghani called for a “national uprising” against the insurgents, cutting a deal with local warlords to join the fight as government forces buckled. The president blamed the “sudden decision” by Washington to pull out of Afghanistan, but insisted he had a strategy to defeat the Taliban.
“Our security plan is clear . . . we have made all the preparations to put an end to this wave of sedition in the next six months and reach a state of stability,” Ghani said.
After weeks of fighting, Taliban fighters overrun most of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province and the former headquarters for British operations in Afghanistan.
Deepening the wound, Taliban sources confirmed reports that the militant commander leading the assault on the key southern city, Mawlavi Talib, was among 5,000 militants released from jail by the Afghan government last year, under the terms of the deal struck between the insurgents and Washington last year, paving the way for the American withdrawal.
“Mawlavi Talib is the key commander from Helmand province who previously launched assaults against British troops in Helmand,” one Taliban commander told The Times. “He is now leading the fight and Taliban are close to gaining control of Lashkar Gah city.”
Pockets of government security forces fought on in desperate resistance, but the struggle for Lashkar Gah underscored that US and Afghan airstrikes were no longer effective against the Taliban onslaught, with militants dug deep into heavily-populated urban areas and using civilian homes as human shields.
“The airstrikes are blindly hitting people’s homes. Why didn’t the government hit them a week ago? Lashkar Gah has fallen. It’s gone,” said Abdul Majid from inside Lashkar Gah.
After weeks of pressure, the dam burst, with the western city of Zaranj becoming the first provincial capital to fall. Taliban fighters rolled in without a shot being fired as government troops melted away.
“This is the beginning and [you will] see how other provinces fall in our hands very soon,” one militant commander told Reuters.
The momentum behind the Taliban offensive accelerated as three more cities fell in a weekend. The northern provincial capitals of Kunduz, Sar-e Pol and Sheberghan, once bastions of opposition to the Islamists, capitulated after fierce fighting. The fall of Kunduz, at a crossroads for the north, represented the greatest victory for the Taliban so far.
With morale collapsing among within the Afghan military, a helicopter pilot was killed by a bomb attached to his car in Kabul, the eighth pilot murdered in recent weeks. The Taliban claimed the attack, as it sought to eliminate the government’s air superiority. The plan was working. One pilot said that at least 19 colleagues had deserted the military, fearing assassination.
Advancing into central Afghanistan, the Taliban moved within striking distance of Kabul, seizing Pul-e-Khumri, just 140 miles north of the capital.
President Ghani flew in to rally troops in the besieged northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, but his trip was overshadowed as hundreds of soldiers surrendered at Kunduz airport after days under relentless mortar fire. In a sign of things to come, one soldier urged fellow troops to lay down their arms.
“The police chief and governor already left Kunduz, all the senior officials are gone. Why should I fight, for what? My message to others is to follow my path,” he said.
In a last-ditch effort to stave off total defeat, Ghani offered to share power with the Taliban in return for a ceasefire, after ten cities fell in a week. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, dismissed the offer from Kabul as an act of desperation.
“The Taliban will not accept the Kabul power-sharing offer and a ceasefire. Our target is to end foreign intervention and an Islamic government will be formed in this country. If Kabul is not ready to accept our demands then it is not difficult for us to fight and continue our jihad,” he said.
After routing government forces in Kandahar, Taliban fighters advanced north into Puli Alam, 50 miles from Kabul, meeting little resistance.
As panic gripped the capital, the US and UK governments announced that they would send 3,000 and 600 troops respectively to oversee the evacuation of American and British nationals. The British embassy in Kabul was set to be abandoned, with the ambassador and a skeleton staff moved to a secure location.
Residents of Jalalabad woke up to find the Taliban in control of their city. Jalalabad was the last piece slotting into place in the Taliban’s jigsaw before they could march on Kabul.
The Taliban’s sudden arrival at the gates of Kabul sent panic through the capital. Government offices immediately cleared of workers and women rushed from the streets. Cash machines swiftly emptied amid a run on banks for money.
Rumours of a takeover swirled the city. Eventually, by early evening it emerged that the president, Ashraf Ghani, had fled. The Taliban moved into Kabul, citing their need to secure the capital.
Overnight the airport descended into chaos as civilian flights were suspended and desperate Afghans tried to storm leaving military planes. Taliban fighters took up position in the vacated presidential palace.
Even as the group announced an amnesty for those who worked with the government, reports emerged their fighters were going door to door in the capital looking for soldiers and government officials.
Graphics by Anna Lombardi and Ryan Watts. Video by Alexis Sogl. Development by Michael Keith. Picture research by Charles Bowden.
