How the Taliban Took Over Afghanistan. Again. | Start Here

On July 8, President Biden said a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was “highly unlikely”. On August 15, they were in the presidential palace in Kabul. They’ve declared an “amnesty” across the country and urged women to join their government. But can they be trusted?

Many Afghans fear the Taliban will revert to the brutal way they ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s. Women are afraid that the rights they’ve gained in the last 20 years will be lost. And thousands are trying to get out — resulting in desperate and chaotic scenes at the airport in Kabul.
How did the Taliban takeover happen so fast? And what does this mean for Afghanistan and the people there? #AJStartHere with Sandra Gathmann explains.
For more background on this story check out this Start Here episode from May 2021: Who are the Taliban?

And if there are other topics that you’d like to see us cover — let us know in the comments ⤵️

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Back in April, President Biden announced

he was pulling US troops out of

Afghanistan, in line with the deal that

Trump struck last year.

Other NATO countries, like the UK, said

they’d follow. In May, troops had already

started pulling out, and by July, the

Americans abandoned Bagram air base —

their main hub for military operations.

They packed up in the middle of the

night without telling their Afghan

counterparts, who were left behind to run

the place. At that point the Taliban

accelerated their offensive. In some

places Afghan security forces put up a

fight but elsewhere they just crumbled.

And remember, these were the forces that

the US trained and equipped to the tune

of $80 billion. And they

outnumbered Taliban fighters four to one.

On August 6, the Taliban took their

first provincial capital. After that the

other capitals fell like dominoes. Places

like Kunduz, Ghazni and Lashkar Gah.

Within a week, the Taliban had taken

Afghanistan’s second and third biggest

cities, Kandahar and Herat.

Then they kept moving towards the

capital.

Once they took the city of Jalalabad on

August 15,

they basically surrounded Kabul.

That evening those Taliban fighters were

inside the presidential palace.

It capped off a crazy day when things

were changing by the hour.

The US military scrambled to evacuate

staff from the American embassy.

By the afternoon, President Ashraf Ghani

had left the country.

And then there was a mad rush for

flights out.

The situation got even more chaotic the

next day. Commercial flights were

suspended and we saw desperate scenes

like this.

And then at least one man

appearing to fall to his death.

For most Afghans, leaving isn’t an option.

They’re stuck wondering what life will

be like under the Taliban a second time

around.

Before the US invasion in 2001, the

Taliban were in power for five years and

imposed their brutal interpretation of

Islamic law.

Music was forbidden, girls were banned

from going to school, men and women were

stoned to death for adultery.

Is this where Afghanistan is headed

again?

Well, a Taliban spokesman offered

reassurances.

He said the group is committed to a

peaceful transfer of power, that it would

offer amnesty to government officials

and that women’s rights would be

respected.

But can they be

trusted?

Many Afghans are sceptical.

And that life just

got really tough.

Food prices are through the roof, people

are struggling to get hold of basic

supplies and people can’t get their

money out of banks. There are also

thousands of Afghans who fled as the

Taliban swept through the country. Many

have ended up in makeshift camps in

Kabul, adding to the 400,000 Afghans who

were forced to leave their homes since

the beginning of the year.

What’s going to happen to all of them?

People are still trying to make sense of

what happened, and the blame game has

ramped up, including from the White House.

The focus

is now on what the new Taliban

government will look like.

International negotiators in Doha are

trying to answer some of those questions

and salvage something from years of

peace talks. They’re encouraging the

Taliban to set up a government that in

some way represents different parts of

Afghan society.

And the Taliban may be open to that as a

way to secure a semblance of

international legitimacy.

But at the same time their fighters are

in the presidential palace and

patrolling the streets — armed to the

teeth.

So it’s absolutely clear who’s calling

the shots.

If you want some more background check

out our recent episode, Who are the

Taliban? And subscribe to Al Jazeera

English so you don’t miss our next

episodes. We’ve got one coming up soon,

looking at al-Qaeda and whether they’re

still a threat to the world. Also, if

you’ve got ideas for topics you think we

should explain let us know in the

comments.