Taliban seizes Lashkar Gah shortly after claiming Kandahar and Herat, Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities.
Afghanistan is tipping towards civil war and the West must understand that the Taliban is not a single entity but a title for a myriad of competing interests, the United Kingdom’s defence minister says.
“Britain found that out in the 1830s, that it is a country led by warlords and led by different provinces and tribes, and you end up, if you’re not very careful in a civil war, and I think we are heading towards a civil war,” Defence Secretary Ben Wallace tells the BBC.“The Taliban is not entirely a single entity, they break down underneath the title into all sorts of different interests,” Wallace said.
The Taliban has captured the key city of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan, a day after the group claimed control over Kandahar and Herat, the country’s second and third largest cities.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speak with Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani “to stress that the United States remains invested in the security and stability of Afghanistan in the face of violence by the Taliban”, the US State Department says in a statement.
“Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin informed President Ghani that the United States is reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation and will accelerate the tempo of Special Immigration Visa (SIV) flights,” the statement says.
Thousands of US soldiers being sent to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul as the Taliban pushes towards the city has revived memories of the fall of Saigon.
A photo that immortalised America’s defeat in Vietnam, showing evacuees boarding a helicopter on the roof of a building, spread fast on social networks after the US announced the emergency deployment on Thursday.