Taliban commander gives press conference INSIDE Kabul’s Presidential Palace

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A Taliban commander claimed he spent eight years in Guantanamo Bay in a triumphant speech from inside the Presidential Palace in Kabul as the militants declared an Islamic state of Afghanistan after the country’s president joined thousands of Afghan nationals in a mass exodus. 

Taliban fighters marched into the ancient palace on Sunday and demanded a ‘peaceful transfer of power’ as the capital city descended into chaos, with US helicopters evacuating diplomats from the embassy in scenes echoing the 1975 Fall of Saigon which followed the Vietnam War.

There were chaotic scenes at Kabul airport where thousands of desperate Afghans are gathering in an attempt to flee the country. Fighting and stampedes broke out between passengers before commercial flights were stopped and only military planes departed the terminals which are now guarded by US troops.  

The Al-Jazeera news channel livestreamed the press conference from inside the palace, which showed a group of Taliban fighters sitting at the President’s desk before a fighter claimed he was a former inmate of the US-controlled Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba. 

Established by George W Bush in 2002, suspected terrorists have been detained without trial and tortured at the facility. Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the centre open indefinitely in 2018, while in February the Biden administration vowed to shut Guantanamo down.

A spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera TV on Sunday that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon.

‘We assure everyone that we will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions. We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection,’ spokesman Mohammad Naeem told the Qatar-based channel.  

He said the group does not think foreign forces will repeat ‘their failed experience in Afghanistan again,’ adding: ‘We move with responsibility in every step and make sure to have peace with everyone… We are ready to deal with the concerns of the international community through dialogue’.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen vowed there would be ‘no revenge’ against those who worked with the previous Afghan government, but refused to guarantee that Afghans would be allowed to flee. ‘Our policy is that no one should leave the country’ he told the BBC. ‘We need all Afghans to stay.’ 

US-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country for Tajikistan, effectively ceding power to the Taliban and bringing the 20-year Western occupation of Afghanistan to an end, while thousands of Afghan nationals rushed to the Pakistan border in a bid to escape Islamist rule.  

Mr Ghani said in a Facebook post that he escaped Afghanistan to ‘prevent a flood of bloodshed’, claiming ‘countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be destroyed’ if he had remained. He did not disclose details on his current location. 

Foreigners in Kabul were told to either leave or register their presence with Taliban administrators, while RAF planes were scrambled to evacuate 6,000 British diplomats, citizens and Afghan translators, and the British Ambassador was moved to a safe place. The US and French Ambassadors have already been evacuated as the US rushes to rescue more than 10,000 of its citizens. 

Italy’s defence ministry said a first military plane would arrive on Sunday to begin ’emergency evacuation’ operations, while Denmark, Norway and Finland are temporarily shutting their Kabul embassies, with Finland to offer asylum to 170 local staff and their families.

However, the Kremlin’s envoy said that there are no plans to evacuate the Russian Embassy in Kabul, as China, Russia, Pakistan and Turkey all appear set to formally recognise the rule of the Sunni extremist group which was created after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 

The United States on Sunday led more than 65 nations in urging the resurgent Taliban to let Afghans leave the country, warning of accountability for any abuses.

‘The United States joins the international community in affirming that Afghans and international citizens who wish to depart must be allowed to do so,’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote on Twitter as the State Department released a statement signed by its close allies. 

‘Those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan bear responsibility – and accountability – for the protection of human life,’ the joint statement said.

Bagram airbase was also surrendered to the Taliban by Afghan troops, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the US and NATO to build up Afghan security forces. Upon its takeover, hundreds of Taliban and Islamic State terrorists being held prisoner there were freed.

Commercial flights were later suspended after sporadic gunfire erupted at the airport, according to two senior US military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations. Evacuations continued on military flights, but the halt to commercial traffic closed off one of the last routes available for Afghans fleeing the country. 

As night fell, Taliban fighters deployed across Kabul, taking over abandoned police posts and pledging to maintain law and order during the transition. Residents reported looting in parts of the city, including in the upscale diplomatic district, and messages circulating on social media advised people to stay inside and lock their gates.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan had ‘accelerated’ the current crisis and announced his government’s priority is to get UK nationals out ‘as fast as we can’ after chairing an emergency Cobra meeting in Downing Street. He also vowed that the Middle Eastern state must not become a ‘breeding ground for terror’ again.  

But he was slammed by Tory MPs – including ex-soldiers Tom Tugendhat, Johnny Mercer and Tobias Ellwood – for presiding over Britain’s ‘biggest single foreign policy disaster’ since Suez and called for UK troops to be redeployed. They also called the crisis a humiliation for the West.  

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was accused of ‘going AWOL’ after spending the past week on holiday abroad while the Afghanistan crisis unfolded. The British Foreign Office said he was returning to the UK on Sunday and was ‘personally overseeing’ the department’s response to the situation.  

President Joe Biden vowed that any action that puts Americans at risk ‘will be met with a swift and strong US military response’. He also swiped his predecessor Donald Trump for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, claiming he left the group ‘in the strongest position militarily since 2001’.  

As Kabul fell to the Taliban: 

Hopeful passengers gathered on Kabul Airport’s runway to escape from Afghanistan;Britain’s ambassador to Afghanistan remains in Kabul, despite an SAS-backed operation to evacuate embassy staff amid a Taliban takeover of the city; The US ambassador and embassy staff are fleeing Afghanistan after Taliban forces stormed Kabul;   Donald Trump called for President Biden to resign on Sunday over the swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan; President Biden ordered about 5,000 troops to help evacuate US staff ‘and other allied personnel’;PM Boris Johnson said said the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan had ‘accelerated’ the crisis;British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was forced to return to the UK from his holiday abroad; Tory MPs called fallout from Anglo-US withdrawal ‘Britain’s worst foreign policy disaster since Suez’;MPs are expected to to vent their anger and frustration when they return to Westminster on Wednesday for an emergency recall of Parliament to discuss the crisis;President Biden defended the withdrawal of US troops and blamed his predecessor Donald Trump for a deal that left the warlords ‘in the strongest position militarily since 2001’;General David Petraeus said President Biden must take responsibility for decision to withdraw;US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted the scene in Afghanistan is not comparable to the fall of Saigon as he diverted blame for the Taliban takeover on Republicans.

Taliban negotiators were in Kabul on Sunday to discuss the transfer of power, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. It remained unclear when that transfer would take place and who among the Taliban was negotiating.

The negotiators on the government side included former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah. Abdullah has been a vocal critic of Mr Ghani, who long refused giving up power to get a deal with the Taliban.

The British Prime Minister has vowed to get as many as possible of the Afghans who worked with the UK out of the country, calling the situation ‘extremely difficult’.

After chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra contingencies committee, Mr Johnson said the UK was determined to work with allies to prevent the country again becoming a ‘breeding ground for terror’.

However, he faced a backlash from Tory MPs – including former soldiers Tom Tugendhat, Johnny Mercer and Tobias Ellwood – who said the West had been humiliated by insurgents armed with just basic weaponry.

MPs are expected to to vent their anger and frustration when they return to Westminster on Wednesday for an emergency recall of Parliament to discuss the crisis.

In the meantime, Mr Johnson said the Government’s priority was to assist the remaining British nationals as well as those Afghans who had helped the UK.

He said the British ambassador Sir Laurie Bristow had been at Kabul airport helping to process the applications of those seeking to leave.

‘Our priority is to make sure that we deliver on our obligations to UK nationals in Afghanistan, to all those who helped the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years, and to get them out as fast we can,’ he said. ‘We are going to get as many as we can out in the next few days.’

The Prime Minister also said Britain will work with allies to try to prevent Afghanistan again becoming a ‘breeding ground for terrorism’.

‘I think it is very important that the West should work collectively to get over to that new government – be it by the Taliban or anybody else – that nobody wants Afghanistan once again to be a breeding ground for terror and we don’t think it is in the interests of the people of Afghanistan that it should lapse back into that pre-2001 status,’ he said.

‘What the UK will be doing is working with our partners in the UN Security, in NATO, to get that message over. We don’t want anybody to bilaterally recognise the Taliban.

‘We want a united position among all the like-minded, as far as we can get one, so that we do whatever we can to prevent Afghanistan lapsing back into a breeding ground for terror.’

Labour has called on the Government to ‘live up to our obligations’ to the Afghan people as Taliban fighters stood poised to take control of Kabul.

Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel saying that safe and legal asylum routes need to be put in place.

In his letter to the Home Secretary he said: ‘The situation in Afghanistan is truly awful. We must now live up to our obligations, especially to those Afghan people who worked so bravely with British representatives in Afghanistan. Our resettlement scheme must, urgently, be expanded to ensure people to whom we owe a huge debt are not abandoned.’

He said the process must include looking to help Afghan workers who helped in areas such as military, media and those who supported the work of the Department for International Development.

‘The Taliban’s return is likely to drive many thousands of people from their homes, with women and girls at particular risk. The UK Government must put in place specific safe and legal asylum routes to help provide support,’ he added.

Amid pressure to announce resettlement plans for people fleeing Afghanistan, the Home Office issued a statement on Twitter on Sunday morning.

It said: ‘The Home Office has already resettled over 3,300 Afghan staff and their families who have worked for the UK. We will continue to fulfil our international obligations and moral commitments. Home Office officials are right now working to protect British nationals and help former UK staff and other eligible people travel to the UK’.

Chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, argued events in Afghanistan are ‘the biggest single foreign policy disaster since Suez’ and said the priority had to be to get as many people as possible out of Kabul.

‘This isn’t just about interpreters or guards. This is about those people who we trained in special forces to serve alongside us, those who helped us to understand the territory through our agencies and our diplomats,’ he told BBC News.

‘This is the people who, on our encouragement, set up schools for girls. These people are all at risk now. The real danger is that we are going to see every female MP murdered, we are going to see ministers strung up on street lamps.’

Mr Raab has come under fire after spending the past week on holiday abroad while the situation in Afghanistan was unravelling. 

Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said that Mr Raab’s absence during a moment of major international upheaval was unacceptable.

‘For the Foreign Secretary to go AWOL during an international crisis of this magnitude is nothing short of shameful,’ she said.

‘A catastrophe is unfolding in front of our eyes and while the Foreign Secretary is nowhere to be seen, hundreds of British nationals are being evacuated and his department is cancelling scholarships for young Afghans.’ 

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The Foreign Secretary is personally overseeing the FCDO response and engaging with international partners. He is returning to the UK today, given the situation.’

Mr Raab meanwhile tweeted that he had been sharing his ‘deep concerns’ about the situation in Afghanistan with Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. He said they had agreed it was critical that ‘the international community is united in telling the Taliban that the violence must end and human rights must be protected’.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Prime Minister needed to set out plans to prevent the fall of the Afghan government turning into a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of displaced people trying to escape the Taliban.

The Liberal Democrats called on the Government to work with allies to establish a ‘safe passage corridor’ so that those Afghans who wanted to leave the country rather than remain under the Taliban could do so.

‘Safety from the Taliban should not just be foreign nationals, or the lucky few who made it in time to Kabul airport,’ said foreign affairs spokeswoman Layla Moran. ‘A safe passage corridor must be secured immediately between Kabul and an international border.

‘If we do not act now, hundreds of thousands of innocent people will be tortured, enslaved and murdered at the hands of the Taliban.’

Helicopters buzzed over Kabul to evacuate personnel from the US Embassy while smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents, in scenes of the evacuation of US Embassy staff in Saigon in 1975 after the Vietnam War. 

A total of 5,000 US troops are being deployed to help safely evacuate State Department staff from the US Embassy in Kabul with some of the first diplomats starting to fly out early Sunday. 

Two US officials told Reuters a ‘small batch’ of people had already left while most staff were ready to go as soon as they were able. The evacuation of embassy staff was originally slated to take 72 hours but officials have ramped up efforts to get all Embassy staff out within the next 36 hours as the militant assault picks up pace, sources told CBS News. 

Only a small number of key personnel including top decision-makers, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Service and top decision-makers and security engineers able to destroy sensitive information will remain.  

All US diplomats should be out of the country entirely by the end of August, the sources said. 

The US military is preparing to lower the American flag over the Embassy – if the State Department gives the order – signaling its closure.  

President Biden announced on Saturday that he was increasing the number of US troops being deployed to protect the withdrawal from the US Embassy to 5,000. 

Around 1,000 service members are already on the ground and 3,000 more were already being sent next week, before he announced the deployment of an extra 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg as the situation escalated Saturday. 

Other western governments are also rapidly withdrawing their embassy staff, citizens and Afghans who worked for them from the country with the British Ambassador set to leave by Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, thousands of locals have fled to Kabul to try to escape the Taliban as they have taken control of their home provinces.  This has pushed the city’s four million population higher and forced refugees to set up home in makeshift camps around the city.  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with Ghani Saturday to discuss the ‘urgency of ongoing diplomatic and political efforts to reduce the violence,’ the State Department said in a statement. 

‘The Secretary emphasized the United States’ commitment to a strong diplomatic and security relationship with the Government of Afghanistan and our continuing support for the people of Afghanistan.’ 

A virtual briefing will be held Sunday morning between Biden Administration officials and House members following a request by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

It comes as the Biden administration has come under fire over the advancement of the Taliban in Afghanistan which many are blaming on the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Mr Biden defended the withdrawal Saturday and blamed predecessor Donald Trump for a deal that left the warlords ‘in the strongest position militarily since 2001’.  

‘One more year, or five more years, of US military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,’ he said in a statement.  

Mr Biden also hit out at predecessor Mr Trump for the deal with the Taliban that led to the recent withdrawal.

He said: ‘When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor – which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 – that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.

‘Shortly before he left office, he also drew US forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500.

‘When I became President, I faced a choice – follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our forces and our allies’ forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict. 

‘I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan – two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.’  

The president has been slammed by several Republicans, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hitting out at the ‘complete mismanagement’ of the Afghanistan withdrawal. 

Mr McCarthy said: ‘The White House has no discernible plan other than pleading with the Taliban. The bungled withdrawal, reminiscent of his failed withdrawal from Iraq, is an embarrassment to our nation.’

‘President Biden must continue to provide the close air support necessary for the Afghan government to protect themselves from the Taliban and make sure al Qaeda and ISIS do not gain a foothold due to the Biden administration’s disastrous policies.’  

Former CIA director and former commander of US and International Forces in Afghanistan David Petraeus also blasted the situation in Afghanistan ‘disastrous’, ‘catastrophic’ and an ‘an enormous national security set back’ for the world. 

Mr Petraeus said on The Rita Cosby Show on WABC Radio the US withdrawal had caused a domino effect in the country. 

‘This is an enormous national security set back and it is on the verge of getting much worse unless we decide to take really significant action,’ Mr Petraeus said. 

‘We are now in a situation where the Taliban are trying to encircle Kabul – a city of 5 of 6 million before hundreds of thousands of refugees starting flooding into it.’   

Senator Tom Cotton tweeted that the ‘fiasco’ was ‘predictable’ and had ‘humiliated’ the US. 

‘The fiasco in Afghanistan wasn’t just predictable, it was predicted. Joe Biden’s ill-planned retreat has now humiliated America and put at risk thousands of Americans left in Kabul,’ he said.

‘At a minimum, President Biden must unleash American air power to destroy every Taliban fighter in the vicinity of Kabul until we can save our fellow Americans. Anything less will further confirm Joe Biden’s impotence to the world.’

Senator Mitt Romney posted that he could not understand why the US had pulled out of the country ‘without an effective strategy to defend our partners.’ 

‘I understand but disagree with those who felt we should leave Afghanistan; I cannot understand why it has been done with such tragic human cost; without an effective strategy to defend our partners; and with inestimable shock to our nation’s credibility, reliability, and honor,’ he tweeted Saturday.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted the Biden administration, claiming the Trump administration had a plan for bringing troops out.

‘Our administration had a model of deterrence in place as we prepared to bring the soldiers, sailors, marines, everybody who is on the ground there, home,’ he tweeted. ‘It looks like the Biden Administration has not been able to execute this.’ 

Taliban fighters invaded the palatial home of top Afghan warlord and US ally General Rashid Dostum Saturday after taking control of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. 

Dostum was a key US ally during the 20 year campaign against the Taliban and famously fought with the Special Forces ‘horse soldiers’ shortly after 9/11.

Before 9/11 he was an infamous warlord who was known for crushing prisoners alive beneath the wheels of a tank and in recent years he was a senior figure in the Afghan National Army. He is believed to have escaped.    

On Saturday, fighters wielding guns were filmed walking Dostum’s home in Mazar-i-Sharif around the luxurious oval-shaped room, filled with chandeliers and gold furniture. 

The fighters videoed themselves lounging on Dostum’s gold furniture, posing in chairs and inspecting his golden tea set. 

Meanwhile, videos from Kandahar showed Taliban fighters seizing grounded US-made Blackhawk helicopters and taking to the air in Russian aircraft after turning their crew.   

Mazar-e-Sharif, the country’s fourth largest city, fell Saturday despite Afghan forces and two powerful former warlords vowing to defend it.

The move handed the insurgents control over all of northern Afghanistan. 

‘The army is not fighting. It is only Atta (Muhammad) Noor and (Marshal Abdul Rashid) Dostum’s militias defending the city,’ Mohammad Ibrahim Khairandesh, a former provincial council member who now lives in the city, told the New York Times.  

‘The situation is critical, and it’s getting worse.’      

‘We are probably experiencing the most massive, brutal and opportunistic military campaign of violence and terror, by the Taliban, in the history of our country,’ Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar said at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute earlier this week. 

Herds of civilians who escaped the violence flooded the streets of Kabul and set up camps while diplomats work with other countries to see who’s willing to take in Afghan refugees.  

The State Department is in talks with several other countries to house US-affiliated Afghan refugees, and Canada has already welcomed 20,000 Afghan refugees threatened by the Taliban, the IRCC – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada – said in a Twitter statement. 

So far, about 1,200 Afghans have been evacuated to the United States and that number is set to rise to 3,500 in the coming weeks under ‘Operation Allies Refuge,’ with some going to a U.S. military base in Virginia to finalize their paperwork and others directly to US hosts, Reuters reported.

A deal to house about 8,000 Afghans in Qatar, which hosts a large US military base, has been close for weeks, a US official told Reuters, although no official deal has been announced. 

Afghan President Ghani addressed the nation in a minute-long video statement Saturday morning (US time) that was translated into English. 

‘Afghanistan is in serious danger of instability,’ Mr Ghani said.

‘Though I know that you are worried about your current situation and your future, I assure you that as your president, my focus is prevent the expansion of instability, violence and displacement of my people,’ Ghani said.

‘As part of a historical mission, I will do my best to stop this imposed conflict on the Afghan people to result in further killing of innocent people, loss of your achievements of the last 20 years, destruction of public property and prolonged instability.’ 

He said he’s engaging with Afghan and international leaders, and consultations are ‘urgently ongoing and the results will soon be shared.’ 

This was his first public comment since the Taliban demanded he resign in exchange for a reduction in violence. 

Between Friday and Saturday, the Taliban made major advances in what’s already been an efficient takeover of the country. 

They captured Herat and Kandahar, which are the country’s second- and third-largest cities, as well as the Logar province, just south of Kabul. The Taliban continued its swift movement towards Kabul by capturing Mazar-i-Sharif. 

Taliban forces began reclaiming land they lost during the United State’s 20-year occupation months before Biden announced his plans to withdraw troops by September 11. 

The preceding Trump administration negotiated the terms of a U.S. withdrawal in talks with the Taliban last year. 

Between May and June, the Taliban recaptured 50 of Afghanistan’s 421 districts, Deborah Lyons, the UN’s special envoy on Afghanistan, told Newsweek.    

The scale and speed of the Taliban advance has shocked Afghans and the US-led alliance that poured billions into the country after toppling the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks nearly 20 years ago.