U.S. KABLEW IT
Rejected Taliban offer to cede city
As Taliban fighters retook the Afghan capital of Kabul in a lightning offensive earlier this month, insurgents offered to allow the United States to hold the city — but senior leaders turned them down, according to a report.
On Aug. 15, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as Taliban forces made their way into Kabul. When reports of gangs moving onto the streets emerged, senior US military leaders in Doha, Qatar, and Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s returned-from-exile political leader, arranged an in-person meeting, according to The Washington Post, which cited a US official.
At the meeting, Baradar said, “We have a problem. We have two options to deal with it: You [the United States military] take responsibility for securing Kabul or you have to allow us to do it.”
Marine Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of US Central Command, was part of the meeting and told Baradar that the Biden administration’s mission was to evacuate American citizens, Afghan allies and all others at risk.
The plan to withdraw US troops by Aug. 31 was still set to move forward. By Sunday evening, the Taliban had taken control of Kabul.
According to the report, an understanding came about that the Taliban would control the city and the US would have control
of the airport through the withdrawal deadline. The Taliban had said they would consider that date a “red line,” and that there would be “consequences” if the withdrawal went past the end of August.
Insurgents reportedly hadn’t planned to take Kabul that day and were surprised by the lack of soldiers and police in the city.
Muhammad Nasir Haqqani, a Taliban commander, allegedly received a message on his phone saying that the “government has left all of their ministries; you have to enter the city to prevent further disorder and protect public property and services from chaos.”
Haqqani and his forces then entered the city gates and reached the palace by late afternoon.
“We couldn’t control our emotions, we were so happy,” he said. “Most of our fighters were crying. We never thought we would take Kabul so quickly.”
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the US had been scrambling to evacuate as many Americans and Afghan allies as possible before Tuesday.
US troops evacuated 123,000 people between Aug. 14 and Monday, including 1,200 within the 24 hours ending Monday morning. An estimated 5,500 American citizens were evacuated. Biden administration officials believe between 250 and 300 Americans were left behind in the country.
The evacuation efforts were briefly paused on Thursday when a suicide bomb attack occurred near the Kabul airport, killing 13 US military personnel and at least 170 Afghans.
Evacuation flights resumed on Friday morning.
ISIS-K, the group also known as the Islamic State Khorasan, took credit for the deadly bombing. In retaliation, the US launched an airstrike Saturday on individuals suspected in the attack, allegedly killing two people with ties to the Islamic State and injuring another.
That same day, President Biden warned that another attack could be imminent — within the next 24 to 48 hours.