WASHINGTON — During the very first 3 months of 2021, the Taliban stepped up attacks versus the Afghan individuals, preserved close ties with Al Qaeda and actively prepared for massive offensives — all while peace talks in between the Taliban and the Afghan federal government stopped working to make any development, according to a brand-new report by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General.
“U.S. Forces-Afghanistan reported a historic increase in enemy-initiated attacks since the signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement, with nearly 37 percent more enemy-initiated attacks this quarter than during the same period in 2020,” the report from the Pentagon’s internal guard dog stated about Operation Freedom Sentinel, the name of the U.S. counterterrorism objective in Afghanistan.
Citing info supplied by Resolute Support, the NATO objective in Afghanistan, the inspector basic discovered that enemy-initiated attacks in the very first and 2nd quarters of 2021 stayed above historic averages, with 11,551 reported this quarter and 10,431 last quarter.
Enemy-started attacks for the previous 3 quarters have actually been at the greatest levels because Operation Freedom Sentinel started in January 2015, “indicating that the Taliban intensified attacks” versus the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces “after the signing of the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement,” the inspector basic discovered.
The report mentioned analysis from the Defense Intelligence Agency stating that from Jan. 1 through March 31, the Taliban’s military method was to get ready for massive offensives versus provincial centers, intricate attacks versus the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’ bases and operations to break down the Afghan forces’ abilities.
In the very first 2 months of 2021, the Taliban surrounded the provincial capitals of Baghlan, Helmand, Kandahar, Kunduz and Uruzgan provinces to prepare the offensives, and they continued assassinating civil servant, security authorities and reporters, the report states.
Citing info from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the report states that Al Qaeda continues to depend on the Taliban for defense which ties in between the 2 groups have actually reinforced.
At the exact same time, the Afghan Security Forces have actually performed offending operations versus the Taliban, however the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that the offensives “did not accomplish anything of strategic value.”
Last month, the Biden administration revealed that all U.S. soldiers would leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 4 months after the May 1 due date set by the Trump administration’s peace arrangement with the Taliban in 2015.
The inspector general’s report mentioned a Defense Intelligence Agency evaluation that Taliban dangers to resume hostilities versus union forces if they did not withdraw by May 1 were reputable which the Taliban were highly likely to react with indirect fire, suicide battles and attacks with vehicle-borne IEDs, or improvised explosive gadgets.
The U.S. started withdrawing soldiers on May 1. According to U.S. Central Command, 13 percent to 20 percent of the withdrawal procedure is total and about 115 C-17 freight airplanes with devices and workers have actually left Afghanistan. The U.S. has actually likewise turned over 5 bases to the Afghan Defense Ministry.
‘We will assist them’
The U.S. unique envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, provided a more positive evaluation Tuesday at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Khalilzad stated he disagreed with some projections that Afghan federal government forces would unwind as soon as U.S. soldiers leave in September.
“I personally believe the predictions that the Afghan forces will collapse right away, they’re not right,” stated Khalilzad, who worked out the February 2020 arrangement with the Taliban that set out the terms for a U.S. military withdrawal.
The U.S. will continue to offer financial backing to the Afghan security forces, he stated. “We are helping them now. We will help them. This is our commitment.”
Both Democratic and Republican legislators voiced hesitation at the hearing that the Afghan federal government and its security forces would have the ability to hang on to power as soon as U.S. forces leave, revealed worries that Afghans who worked for the U.S. federal government would deal with retribution from the Taliban and stated they were fretted that remarkable gains in females’s rights would be lost.
Khalilzad, an Afghan-born diplomat, stated that there was no military service to the dispute which if the Taliban thought they might win on the battleground, the insurgents would deal with a “long war.”
“The real choice that the Afghans will face is between a long war and a negotiated settlement. And I hope the Taliban and the other Afghan leaders make the right choice. I hope that those with influence over the Taliban, such as Pakistan, do the right thing,” he stated.
But he argued that the U.S. needed to deal with the truth that an ongoing military existence would not produce a various result. “Again I keep coming to this proposition: What is the alternative? Is the alternative to keep doing what we have been doing for another 10, 20 years if you see that there is no way you can prevail?”
Khalilzad stated he shared legislators’ issues about the security of Afghans who worked as interpreters or in other tasks for U.S. soldiers and diplomats. He stated the Biden administration was working to accelerate applications for U.S. visas under a program created for Afghans who were used by the U.S. federal government.
But he included: “We don’t want to signal panic and the departure of all educated Afghans by worst-casing and undermining the morale of the Afghan security forces. So this is a delicate, complicated balance that we have to keep.”
Under the U.S.-Taliban arrangement signed in 2015, the insurgents vowed to guarantee that Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups would not be permitted to utilize Afghan area to release attacks versus the U.S. or its allies.
Asked whether the Taliban were measuring up to their counterterrorism guarantees, Khalilzad stated: “They have made substantial progress in delivering on those commitments. But we would like to see more.”
Khalilzad likewise recommended that the U.S. was making development in protecting possible arrangements with surrounding nations for access to military bases to attend to terrorism dangers from Afghanistan. “What I can say in this format,” he stated, “is that several countries in the area are open to enhanced cooperation.”
As for the future of females’s rights and human rights, Khalilzad stated any future U.S. help would depend upon Afghanistan’s promoting regard for essential flexibilities.
Khalilzad stated Taliban agents had actually informed him that their views on females’s rights had actually progressed because they were in power in the late 1990s.
“We don’t take their word for it. We will have to see,” he stated.
