The Taliban seized three additional provincial capitals in Afghanistan as their military offensive pushes forward, officials said on Wednesday.
These new Taliban-controlled areas, which are now among nine provincial capitals, bring the militant group’s hold to about two-thirds of the nation, according to the Associated Press, as the United States and NATO complete their withdrawal at the end of this month after roughly two decades.
Despite the Taliban’s territorial gains in recent days, and with the U.S.’s planned departure less than three weeks away, White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed hope that the fall of the Afghan government is not “inevitable,” on Tuesday.
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“Look, we spent over a trillion dollars over 20 years,” President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House the same day. “We trained and equipped, with modern equipment, over 300,000 Afghan forces. And Afghan leaders have to come together.”
Officials in the administration are losing confidence in the Afghan government and military’s ability to hold off the Taliban, and some believe it will happen sooner than expected, according to the Washington Post. Some reportedly have said they believe Kabul could fall to the Taliban within a month, or within 90 days, according to others, projecting a much more dire situation than intelligence officials thought, which was that a fall could come as soon as six months after the U.S. completes its withdrawal.
The State Department is overseas engaging in a diplomatic effort to convince the Taliban to stop their offensive or risk becoming a pariah of the international community.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. diplomat who negotiated the withdrawal deal with the Taliban last year, is back in Qatar for three days of meetings in which he’ll press for “a reduction of violence and ceasefire and a commitment not to recognize a government imposed by force,” and he will urge the “Taliban to stop their military offensive.”
Simultaneously, the U.S. military continues to use airstrikes to attack targets “where and when feasible,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said earlier this week.
“We don’t have forces on the ground in partnership with them,” Kirby said. “We will certainly support from the air, where and when feasible, but that’s no substitute for leadership on the ground, it’s no substitute for political leadership in Kabul, it’s no substitute for using the capabilities and capacity that we know they have.”
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The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has claimed the Taliban’s military offensive is “contradict[ory to] its claim to support a negotiated settlement,” and it issued a directive urging U.S. citizens to leave the country “immediately.”
