Taliban seizes Jalalabad; Trump slams Biden for 'failing Afghan policy'

“You have ruined our Afghan policy.”

That is what former US President Donald Trump seems to be telling his successor Joe Biden, even as the Taliban is storming its way to capture Kabul.

The statement comes a day after Biden’s decision to send in 3,000 US troops to Afghanistan to help partially evacuate the US Embassy.

In a blunt statement, Trump said, “The Taliban no longer has fear or respect for America, or America’s power. What a disgrace it will be when the Taliban raises their flag over American Embassy in Kabul. This is a complete failure through weakness, incompetence, and total strategic incoherence.”

Trump said that Biden gets it wrong every time on foreign policy and many other issues.
Everyone knew he couldn’t handle the pressure. Even Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said as much, he said.

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“He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America. The withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground,” Trump said.

Taiban seizes Jalalabad

The Taliban seized the city of Jalalabad early Sunday, cutting off Afghanistan’s increasingly isolated capital Kabul to the east as the insurgents’ blitz across the country continued ahead of the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country after two decades of war.

The collapse of Jalalabad, which had been the last major city standing besides Kabul, leaves Afghanistan’s central government in control of just the capital and seven other provincial capitals.

In a nationwide offensive that has taken just over a week, the Taliban has defeated, co-opted or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swathes of the country, even with some air support by the US military.

President Ashraf Ghani, who spoke to the nation on Saturday for the first time since the offensive began, appears increasingly isolated as well.

Warlords he negotiated with just days earlier have surrendered to the Taliban, leaving Ghani without a military option.

Ongoing negotiations in Qatar, the site of a Taliban office, also have failed to stop the insurgents advance as thousands of civilians flee into Kabul.

The militants posted photos online early Sunday showing them in the governor’s office in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

Abrarullah Murad, a lawmaker from the province told The Associated Press that the insurgents seized Jalalabad after elders negotiated the fall of the government there.

Murad said there was no fighting as the city surrendered.

The seizure on Sunday comes amid rapid gains by the Taliban over the last week, pressuring Afghanistan’s central government as US, British and Canadian forces rush troops in to help their diplomatic staffs still there.

The fall of Mazar-e-Sharif, the country’s fourth-largest city, which Afghan forces and two powerful former warlords had pledged to defend, hands the insurgents’ control over all of northern Afghanistan.

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In his Saturday speech, Ghani vowed not to give up the achievements of the 20 years since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks.

The U.S. has continued holding peace talks between the government and the Taliban in Qatar this week, and the international community has warned that a Taliban government brought about by force would be shunned.

But the insurgents appear to have little interest in making concessions as they rack up victories on the battlefield. We have started consultations, inside the government with elders and political leaders, representatives of different levels of the community as well as our international allies, Ghani said.

Soon the results will be shared with you, he added, without elaborating further. Tens of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes, with many fearing a return to the Taliban’s oppressive rule.

The group had previously governed Afghanistan under a harsh version of Islamic law in which women were forbidden to work or attend school, and could not leave their homes without a male relative accompanying them. Salima Mazari, one of the few female district governors in the country, expressed fears about a Taliban takeover Saturday in an interview from Mazar-e-Sharif, before it fell.

There will be no place for women, said Mazari, who governs a district of 36,000 people near the northern city. In the provinces controlled by the Taliban, no women exist there anymore, not even in the cities. They are all imprisoned in their homes.

(With Agency inputs)