As the jihadists seized Kabul, a plume of smoke emerged from America’s fortress-like embassy as staff burned sensitive documents
IN RECENT YEARS the presidential palace in Kabul, known as the Arg, or citadel, has been an oasis of calm in a bustling, nerve-racked city. To get to it, visitors must negotiate a mile of checkpoints, staffed by increasingly well-armed Afghan army commandos. Inside the 19th-century courtyard, Afghan government officials would sip lattes from a smart cafe, surrounded by well-tended gardens, and discuss the politics outside, in the real Afghanistan.
How did a government with 350,000 soldiers, trained and equipped by the best armies in the world, collapse so quickly? In 1975 the North Vietnamese army, backed by a superpower, still took months to advance through South Vietnam, fighting hard for territory. The Taliban, thought to number no more than 200,000 soldiers, armed mostly with equipment they have seized from their enemies, have taken all of Afghanistan’s urban centres in little more than a week, generally without much resistance.
In each case, the militants have made wide-ranging promises, to “forgive” those who served in the American-backed government, in exchange for surrender. In Kandahar, former soldiers who surrendered have been issued withdocuments that they can show at Taliban checkpoints. There, throughout Friday night the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the city. According to residents, it was mostly fired in the air in celebration.
. After the militants took Spin Boldak, a town on the Pakistani border that was among the first to fall in late July, credible reports emerged quickly afterwards of dozens of government supporters being massacred. In Kandahar in late July, when the militants began to take the outskirts of the city, they kidnapped Nazar Mohammad, a popular comedian, and murdered him. Reports from Kandahar say that armed Taliban have been going door to door seeking out people who worked for Western governments.
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