With the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan the Islamist Taliban keep advancing and conquer numerous areas. The messages at a glance:
The third largest city in Afghanistan fell to the militant Islamist Taliban. The most important government institutions in Herat in the west of the country are in the hands of the Islamists, three local officials confirmed to the German Press Agency. The strategic city of Gasni in the southeast fell only on Thursday morning (local time). The second largest city, Kandahar, is also fiercely contested.
The fall of the historic city of Herat, with an estimated 600,000 inhabitants, was preceded by weeks of attacks. The Taliban were initially kept in check by the security forces and militias of the local politician and former warlord Ismail Chan, and in some cases were also pushed back.
Provincial councils have reported increasing fighting in Herat since Thursday afternoon. The Taliban had advanced into the city from the east and reached the governor’s seat up to 200 meters. Ismail Chan’s militias were busy repelling another attack by the Islamists in the west of the city. They have also advanced from the north, said another provincial council.
On Thursday evening, the governor’s palace, police headquarters and prison were finally under the control of the Taliban. As in other cities they had conquered, the Islamists released the prisoners. The security forces did not fight, said the provincial councilor Ghulam Habib Haschimi.
Only the forces of the popular uprising recently assembled by Ismail Chan resisted the takeover of the city. The governor and other officials had withdrawn to a military base near the airport. It was not immediately clear where Ismail Chan was, who, as one of the leaders of the Northern Alliance, had helped the US drive out the Taliban in 2001.
In the past few weeks, according to local officials, the Taliban had repeatedly invaded the city for short attacks and then withdrew immediately. With this and with selfies of themselves in the city on social media, they had spread terror among the citizens, said the spokesman for the governor of the province of Herat.
The Taliban have also captured another provincial capital. Kala-e Nau in the Badghis province in the north-west of the country had been taken over by the Islamists, a provincial council and a member of the German press agency confirmed. The twelfth provincial capital thus fell to the Taliban within less than a week. (08/12/2021)
Erdoğan is considering meeting with Taliban leadership
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has brought a meeting with the Taliban leadership into play to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. Erdoğan said in an interview with the television broadcaster CNN Türk that he consulted with government officials from Qatar on Wednesday about how the advance of the Taliban could be stopped and a step towards “peace” could be achieved.
“Our responsible institutions are working on it, including in talks with the Taliban,” said Erdoğan – albeit without further explanation. He suggested seeing someone from the Taliban leadership in Turkey. It remained unclear who exactly he was referring to and when such a meeting could take place.
Taliban fighters have taken control of a number of provincial capitals in the past few days as the US pushes ahead with its plan to withdraw the remaining troops by the end of the month. It is said to be completed before the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (08/12/2021)
Germany urges citizens to leave Afghanistan more quickly
In view of the rapid conquest of the Islamist Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, Germany urges its citizens to leave the crisis country quickly. Against the background of the significantly deteriorated security situation in the entire national territory, including the capital Kabul, the embassy urgently advises all German nationals to leave the country as soon as possible by scheduled flight, according to a message sent by the Federal Foreign Office.
Should the situation worsen, this could possibly also result in the cessation of commercial air traffic. The German embassy in Kabul expressly pointed out that, due to their limited work opportunities and limited capacities, they could not guarantee consular support if the security situation worsened.
A travel warning for Afghanistan has been in place for a long time. At the end of March, a request to leave the country was issued, which is underlined again with the request that has now been sent, as the message says. The USA, Great Britain and other countries have also called on their citizens to leave the country as quickly as possible in the past few weeks. France or India have already used repatriation flights.
Because of the situation in Afghanistan, the Minister of State in the Foreign Office, Niels Annen, expects an increasing number of refugees from the region in Germany as well. “It is naive to believe that the advance of the Taliban and the violence in the war region have no consequences for migration policy. People from Afghanistan will have to flee even more than in previous years,” said the SPD politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “We will feel the effects in Germany as well, even if not in the coming weeks.” Germany was “an attractive target country” for Afghans, emphasized the Minister of State. (08/12/2021)
Maas threatens to withdraw aid to Afghanistan when the caliphate is established
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is threatening to stop financial support for Afghanistan if the radical Islamic Taliban establish a caliphate there. “We give 430 million euros every year. We will not give a cent more to Afghanistan when the Taliban have completely taken over this country, introduce Sharia law and this country becomes a caliphate,” said Maas on ZDF. But Afghanistan would not be viable without international aid. It is clear to the Taliban that they depend on it.
“It will not be the case that the Taliban take over this country alone, but they want to be part of the government, they want to be the more powerful part of the government,” said Maas. It will be about what the constitution will look like and what rights there will be. “Is this supposed to be a caliphate? That is something we will not support.” (08/12/2021)
Kramp-Karrenbauer: Afghan authorities delay the departure of local staff
According to Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the Afghan bureaucracy is currently delaying the departure of former local staff who fear for life and limb because of their commitment to the Bundeswehr in their home country. “There is a bottleneck at the moment. That is the fact that the Afghan side itself only lets people out of the country if they have an Afghan passport,” said the CDU politician on Deutschlandfunk. This is “the biggest bottleneck” at the moment.
The Federal Foreign Office is trying to dissuade the Afghan government from this practice. When asked whether they refuse to allow the Bundeswehr to return to Afghanistan in order to get those affected out of the country, Kramp-Karrenbauer said: “We see the other option at the moment.” They work on it “day and night” because they see it as their duty to “get the people out”.
Several thousand former Afghan employees who worked for the German armed forces or in development aid and their family members are still on site. They are threatened by the radical Islamic Taliban, who have rapidly brought more and more areas in Afghanistan under their control since the beginning of the international troop withdrawal. Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on ZDF that visas for 2,500 people had been issued so far. 1500 of them are already in Germany.
Taliban conquer important cities
The important provincial capital Gasni in southeast Afghanistan fell to the militant Islamist Taliban. This was confirmed by three provincial councilors of the German press agency. The strategically important city with 180,000 inhabitants is located on the important ring road that connects the largest cities in the country and is less than 150 kilometers from the capital Kabul.
The Taliban are all over the city, said the provincial councils. They would have taken over the prison, the governor’s seat and the police headquarters. Only the secret service is still fighting the extremists for its building. Two provincial councils reproached the governor of the province of the same name. He had concluded a secret agreement with the Taliban and thus practically surrendered the city to the Islamists. The governor and the police chief had left Gasni City for Kabul.
Ten provincial capitals, including the city of Gasni, fell to the Islamists in less than a week. Most of it is in the north of the country. Of all the fallen cities, Gasni is the closest to Kabul. (08/12/2021)
Germany is suspending deportations to Afghanistan
For the time being, Germany is no longer deporting people to Afghanistan. “Due to the current developments in the security situation, the Federal Interior Minister decided to suspend deportations to Afghanistan for the time being,” said a spokesman for the Federal Interior Ministry of the German Press Agency.
A deportation of six Afghans that was postponed last week will initially not be made up for. The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated dramatically since the decision to withdraw international troops from Afghanistan in mid-April. The militant Islamist Taliban have now regained control of nine provincial capitals.
Seehofer’s move is a U-turn. The German interior minister and his counterparts from Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece recently wrote a letter to the EU Commission. In it, the ministers warned against suspending deportations. Because that would “send the wrong signal and probably motivate even more Afghans to leave their homeland for the EU,” they say in the three-page letter.
The EU ambassadors represented in Kabul had only spoken out in favor of stopping deportations on Tuesday. Among them was the German representative, who thus assumed a different position from Interior Minister Seehofer. 26 organizations, including Amnesty International, Pro Asyl, Caritas and Diakonie, pleaded for a stop in a joint declaration. “Germany must not turn a blind eye to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and must stop all deportations,” says the appeal. “The rule of law means that human rights principles are observed.” The international law non-refoulement requirement, which is derived from the absolute prohibition of torture and prohibits deportations in the event of the most serious human rights violations to be expected, is one of them: “This prohibition of deportation applies regardless of individual behavior.”