On 14 April 2021, the president of America Joe Bidden, announced the withdrawal of all its troops from Afghanistan before the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attack. But the seed of withdrawal of troops was not new it was already planted by the Trump Government in 2020 by the name of the Doha Agreement.

Doha Agreement 2020:

On 29 February 2020, a peace agreement was signed between the USA and the Taliban, which was also known as “Bring peace to Afghanistan”, for the peace of Afghanistan at Sheraton Grand Doha in Doha, Qatar. The agenda of the agreement was the withdrawal of all the Americans and NATO from Afghanistan if the Taliban promises to reduce its attacks in Afghanistan.

The Agreement was supported by three-nation, China, Russia, and Pakistan. But the interesting part was that the agreement did not involve the Government of Afghan.

But the important question rises that were the attacks reduced or not? And the answer is no.

Increase of Attacks:

After the Doha Agreement, a major increase was seen in the insurgent attacks against Afghanistan National security Forces(ANSF). In just 45 days after the agreement between the period of 1 March to 15 April, 4,500 attacks were done in Afghanistan. In the attacks, 900 ANSF were killed which was a 70% increase if we compare the same period of the previous year.

If we look at the casualties done by the ANSF to the Taliban then it was about 610. In the same period in the previous year, the casualties were about 1,660. This major slip down was because of the limitations and pressure made by the USA due to Doha Agreement.

Bloodiest Week in 19 years:

In June 2020, a week was the bloodiest week in the 19 years. In that particular week, 290 ANSF were killed and 550 wounded in 422 attacks. Yes, 422 attacks in just a week, we can’t even imagine the level of this bloodshed. Not only the Forces but the 42 civilians were killed and 105 wounded across 18 provinces. The data of deaths include women and children both.

Warning to restrict the withdrawals:

On 1 July 2020, the house armed services made a warning based on the National Defence Authorization Act amendment to restrict president trump’s ability to withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, and that was totally ignored.

First, withdrawal of Troops(2011-2016):

During the 2015 war scenario in Afghanistan, NATO planned to maintain only 13,000 troops in Afghanistan and was expected to make a presence by the end of 2016. But the surge of becoming worst condition in Afghanistan, USA postponed the withdraw by December 2016 and maintained 8,400 troops in Kabul, Bagram, and Jalalabad. But after the battle of Kunduz, the withdrawal was completed by leaving behind about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan.

Intra-Afghan Negotiation:

The Intra-Afghan Negotiation was mean to be a deal between the Taliban and the Afghan Government which was scheduled for 19 March 2020 but hasn’t succeeded. The desire of the deal was that the Taliban will release 1000 Afghan personnel if the Afghan government release the Taliban prisoners, who were under the Afghan government.

Initially, it was rejected Afghan government and after much rejection by both of them, the Afghan government freed 5000 Taliban prisoners under the request of Trump’s Administration by September 2020.

A Government talks had to be done for the help but it faced many persistent delays. And ultimately troops withdrawal happened without any Agreement.

Taliban on the way to occupy whole nation:

By early 2021, Afghan leaders and the pentagon(the headquarter of the USA’s Department of defense) believed in continue US support for Kabul. The reality is that the USA wants itself out from this Afghanistan war.

As the US troops began on 1 May 2021, the join of militants groups and Taliban is highlighted. Now, let us look that how the spread of the Taliban was done, month-wise.

May:

In the month of May, the Taliban captured 15 districts of Afghanistan. They killed about 405 ANSF and 260 civilians. The ANSF also claimed that they killed about 2146 Taliban fighters.

June:

In the month of June, the Taliban captured 69 districts. They also took 700 trucks and dozens of armored vehicles. They also shot down an Afghan Air Force Mil MI-17 and killed three pilots. A UH-60 Black Hawk was also damaged on the ground.

On June 16 they executed 22 Surrender Afghan Army Commandoes. In this month the Taliban killed 703 ANSF and 208 Civilians. The ANSF claims that they had also killed 1535 Taliban Fighters.

By the end of June, all the Resolute support mission members countries had withdrawn their troops from Afghanistan except UK, Turkey, the USA.

July:

In the month of July, the Taliban captured 64 districts and entered the second and the third largest cities of Afghanistan, Kandahar, and Herat. In the month, the Taliban killed 335 ANSF and 189 civilians. And the Afghan army claims that they have killed 3,159 Taliban fighters.

Iranian media reported that about 300 Afghan soldiers and Civilians had crossed the border and entered Iran to escape the Taliban. On the first weekend of July, hundreds of armed women were seen on the streets of Northern and central Afghanistan.

During the weekend, the Taliban captured 9 borders posts, and also 39 Personnel of the Afghan army surrender to the Taliban, and 31 fled to Pakistan. On 12 July there 148 districts were under the Taliban.

On 21 July, Mark Miley, who is a chairman of the joint chief’s staff reported that half of Afghanistan is Under the Taliban.

August:

On 3 August 40 civilians were killed and about 100 were wounded by the Taliban. 13 people including five Attackers were killed in a Taliban bombing and shootout In Kabul. On 5th August 115 ANSF personnel and 58 civilians were killed. And the ANSDF calmed that they had also killed 3,197 Taliban fighters.

On 6 August the Taliban entered the provisional capital, Sheberghan, and Captured it on 7 August. By the end of the day, August Toloqan city was also captured by the Taliban. By 12 August 11 out of 34 Provisional capitals were under the Taliban.

By 15 August, the Taliban entered Jalalabad, unopposed and captured the 26th provisional capital t full and then Kabul. On the 16th of August, the Khost Protection Force Created by the CIA surrender to the Taliban.

The situation in Afghanistan is horrifying. Everyone knows the past of the Taliban. There is much more to discuss on how the world is responding, what’s India’s point on this. This will be cover in the upcoming articles.