The Taliban, an Islamist group, regained full control of Afghanistan after US forces left the country. The Taliban have now taken up residence in the presidential palace, but the self-proclaimed independence fighters began taking over the provinces a few weeks ago.
Consider changing clothes immediately.
On April 15, US President Joe Biden officially announced that US troops would leave Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. It was supposed to end the 20-year war, the longest in American history. More than 18,000 Afghans cooperated with the United States during the war: translators, drivers, engineers, security guards, employees of American embassies and others. Following the decision to withdraw the soldiers, Afghans applied for immigrant visas as if the war had not ended, and if any of their identities were revealed, it would spell death for them.
All hell broke loose on July 31, when Taliban fighters entered Herat and Kandahar and began firing rockets at Kandahar airport, disrupting flight schedules. Since then, the Taliban have reclaimed their old territory city by city, province by province. The Afghan army was unprepared and unprepared for such an attack. Even the airstrikes didn’t help much—hundreds died on both sides at this point.
On August 13, after fierce fighting, Taliban fighters captured the second and third largest cities in Afghanistan – Kandahar and Herat, forcing President Ashraf to mobilize all available forces as Taliban fighters approached the capital. On August 15, the Taliban captured Jalalabad without local resistance and moved to the capital, Kabul. Their message on the Al Jazeera TV network assured residents that the militants wanted to take control of the capital “peacefully”, but with all the chaos, there could be many casualties.
It’s pure chaos right now.
Thousands of people are fleeing Afghanistan. Some gamble with their lives and drop from the sky in hopes of escaping that hell. Others wait patiently for their turn. Women are oppressed and forced to go back to the “good old days” of being beat up walking down the street alone with their faces covered. It doesn’t look good.