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{{Short description|Taliban capture of the capital of Afghanistan}}{{about|the Taliban siege of Kabul in 2021 during their offensive|the 2001 U.S. capture of Kabul following the United States invasion of Afghanistan|Fall of Kabul (2001)}}{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}

factoids

| result = Taliban victory

• Collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
• End of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)WEB, 26 August 2021, Taliban declares 'war is over in Afghanistan' as foreign powers exit Kabul,weblink 16 August 2021, The Guardian,
• Government officials flee Afghanistan, including President Ashraf GhaniWEB, 18 August 2021, UAE says Afghanistan's Ghani is in Gulf Arab state,weblink 18 August 2021, Reuters, Ghaida, Ghantous,
• Re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of AfghanistanWEB, The Taliban have declared the 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,' the same name it used when it brutally ruled the country in the 1990s, Business Insider, Sinéad, Baker, 19 August 2021, 20 August 2021,weblink WEB,weblink Taliban declare formation of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, www.uniindia.com,
• Hibatullah Akhundzada installed as supreme leader of Afghanistan
• Evacuation of national and international diplomatic, military and civilian personnel (Operation Allies Refuge, Operation Pitting, Operation Devi Shakti)
• Anti-Taliban forces relocate to PanjshirWEB, 17 August 2021, The Panjshir Valley: what is the main bastion of resistance against the Taliban advance in Afghanistan,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 17 August 2021, Market Research Telecast,
• Start of the 2021 Afghan protests

NATO and the Afghan National Army>ANA maintained temporary control of Kabul International Airport for evacuation

• {{Flag|Taliban{edih}
• {{flag|al-Qaeda}} (alleged)NEWS, Roggio, Bill, 12 July 2021, Taliban advances as U.S. completes withdrawal, FDD's Long War Journal,weblink live, 16 July 2021,weblink 24 July 2021,

}}Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}}Supported by:{hide}plainlist|

• {{USA{edih}
• {{UK}}
• {{flag|Australia}}WEB, 26 August 2021, Afghanistan crisis and response,weblink 1 January 2024, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,

}}

• {{flagicon|Taliban{edih} Hibatullah AkhundzadaWEB, Kapetas, Anastasia, 16 August 2021, After the fall of Kabul,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, www.aspistrategist.org.au/,
• {{flagicon|Taliban}} Mohammad Yaqoob
• {{flagicon|Taliban}} Abdul Ghani Baradar
• {{flagicon|Taliban}} Sirajuddin Haqqani
• {{flagicon|Taliban}} Abdul Qayyum ZakirWEB, Moiz, Ibrahim, A tricky path from insurgency to Emirate,weblink TRT World, en, 27 August 2021,
• {{flagicon|Taliban}} Salahuddin Ayubi
• {{flagicon|Taliban}} Hamdullah MukhlisWEB, Senior Taliban commander, several civilians killed in Kabul hospital attack,weblink France 24, en, 2 November 2021, WEB, First to enter presidential palace, Taliban member died in Daesh attack,weblink TRT World, en, 3 November 2021,

}}

• {{flagicon|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan{edih} Ashraf GhaniNEWS, Batchelor, Tom, 15 August 2021, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani flees capital Kabul for Tajikistan as Taliban enter city, The Independent,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021,
• {{flagicon|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}} Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal
• {{flagicon|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}} Bismillah Khan
• {{flagicon|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}} Hebatullah AlizaiNEWS, Azaz, Syed, 11 August 2021, Afghanistan Army Chief removed from post, Geo.tv,weblink live, 16 August 2021,weblink 11 August 2021,
• {{flagicon|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}} Ahmad Zia Saraj
• {{flagicon|Islamic Republic of Afghanistan}} Sami SadatNEWS, Kilcullen, David, 17 August 2021,weblink Critical intervention that swung the battle for Kabul, The Australian, 21 August 2021,

}}{hide}plainlist|

• {{flagicon|US{edih} Joe Biden
• {{flagicon|US}} Mark Milley
• {{flagicon|UK}} Boris Johnson
• {{flagicon|UK}} Nick Carter
• {{flagicon|Australia}} Scott Morrison
• {{flagicon|Australia}} Angus Campbell

}}| units1 = Taliban unitsIslamic Republic of Afghanistan}}

• Afghan National Army
  • 201st CorpsNEWS, Roggio, Bill, 14 August 2021, Taliban encircling Afghan capital Kabul, prepping final assault through east, FDD's Long War Journal,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 14 August 2021,
  • 111th Division
• Afghan National Police| strength1 = | strength2 = | casualties1 = | casualties2 = | casualties3 = | notes = | campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Afghan War}}

}}On 15 August 2021, Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul was captured by the Taliban after a major insurgent offensive that began in May 2021. It was the final action of the War in Afghanistan, and marked a total victory for the Taliban. This led to the overthrowing of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under President Ashraf Ghani and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban.The US–Taliban deal, signed on 29 February 2020, is considered one of the most critical factors that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).NEWS, 29 February 2020, Afghan conflict: US and Taliban sign deal to end 18-year war, BBC News,weblink NEWS, Borger, Julian, US withdrawal triggered catastrophic defeat of Afghan forces, damning watchdog report finds, 18 May 2022, 19 May 2022,weblink The Guardian, Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the Taliban insurgency.NEWS, US withdrawal prompted collapse of Afghan army: Report, 18 May 2022, 19 May 2022,weblink Al Jazeera, Months before the fall, many in the United States Intelligence Community estimated that Kabul would be taken at least six months after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was completed. However, beginning in May 2021, even while the withdrawal was occurring, the Taliban was able to take most of Afghanistan's provinces in rapid succession during a major offensive. During this period, estimates for the longevity of the Afghan state declined significantly. Ultimately, US President Joe Biden conceded on 16 August that the collapse "unfold[ed] more quickly than [they] had anticipated".WEB, Liptak, Kevin, Zeleny, Jeff, Collins, Kaitlan, Hansler, Jennifer, Vazquez, Maegan, 16 August 2021, Biden admits Afghanistan's collapse 'did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated',weblink CNN, WEB, Merchant, Nomaan, Miller, Zeke, 18 August 2021, Misread warnings helped lead to chaotic Afghan evacuation,weblink AP NEWS, NEWS, Ryan, Missy, DeYoung, Karen, 13 April 2021, Biden will withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, The Washington Post,weblink live, 16 August 2021,weblink 16 August 2021, WEB, 16 August 2021, The Fall of Kabul: Beginning of Taliban 2.0,weblink 19 August 2021, The Financial Express, WEB, Final US planes leave Kabul airport after two decades of war in Afghanistan,weblink Deutsche Welle, 30 August 2021, Between 14 and 31 August 2021, the US and its coalition partners evacuated more than 123,000 people from Afghanistan via airlifts from Kabul International Airport (known then as Hamid Karzai International Airport). During the evacuation, the airport remained under NATO and US military control despite the collapse of the central government.WEB, Coote, Darryl, Jacobson, Don, 30 August 2021, Afghanistan rockets fired at Kabul airport amid US withdrawal,weblink United Press International, NEWS, 30 August 2021, Factbox: Evacuations from Afghanistan by country, Reuters,weblink live, registration,weblink 30 August 2021, Evacuees included foreign diplomatic staff and military personnel, third-country civilians,{{Efn|Non-US, non-Afghan nationals}} Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans such as journalists and human rights activists. The airlift was the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in US military history, with US military personnel transferring 79,000 civilians through the airport and out of Afghanistan over the 18-day mission.WEB, Watson, Kathryn, 31 August 2021, Uncertainty lingers for Americans trying to leave Afghanistan after U.S. withdrawal,weblink CBS News, NEWS, Jakes, Lara, 31 August 2021, Stranded in Kabul: A U.S. Resident Runs Out of Options, en-US, The New York Times,weblink live, 24 March 2023,weblink 28 December 2021, 0362-4331, After the United States' withdrawal on 31 August, a group of about 1,000 people, including US citizens and Afghans holding American visas, were still stranded in Kabul.NEWS, Melissa Eddy and, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, U.S. Citizens and Afghans Wait for Evacuation Flights From Country's North,weblinkweblink 28 December 2021, limited, 6 September 2021, The New York Times, 5 September 2021, en, Around 1,000 people, including dozens of American citizens and Afghans holding visas to the United States or other countries, remained stuck in Afghanistan for the fifth day on Sunday as they awaited clearance for the departure from the Taliban, {{cbignore}} Two weeks later, secretary of state Antony Blinken said it was several thousand US residents and one hundred US citizens.WEB,weblink Blinken pushes back on GOP criticism of Afghan withdrawal, Associated Press, www.nbc29.com, 13 September 2021,

Background

US–Taliban deal

The US–Taliban deal, also known as the "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan", was a peace agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban on 29 February 2020 in Doha, Qatar. The deal was meant to bring the war in Afghanistan to an end.NEWS, Qazi, Shereena, Afghanistan's Taliban, US sign agreement aimed at ending war, 29 February 2020, 6 March 2021,weblink Al Jazeera Media Network, Al-Jazeera, Significantly, the deal did not involve the then Afghan government,WEB, Basu, Nayanima, India asserts Afghanistan's 'national sovereignty' as peace talks with Taliban start in Qatar,weblink ThePrint, 12 September 2020, 24 February 2021, 4 April 2021,weblink live, which led some experts to compare it to the Munich Agreement of 1938.JOURNAL, Maley, William, Jamal, Ahmad Shuja, 2022, Diplomacy of Disaster: The Afghanistan 'Peace Process' and the Taliban Occupation of Kabul,weblink The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 10, 1, 32–63, 10.1163/1871191X-bja10089, 1871-1901, free, WEB, Kapila, Dr Subhash, 2021-08-19, United States' 'Munich Moment': Doha Peace Dialogues With Afghan Taliban – Analysis,weblink Eurasia Review, en-US, The deal stipulated fighting restrictions for both the US and the Taliban, including the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan in return for counter-terrorism commitments from the Taliban. The US agreed to an initial reduction of its force level from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days (i.e., by July 2020), followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months (i.e., by 1 May 2021) if the Taliban kept its commitments. The US also committed to closing five military bases within 135 days, and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by 27 August 2020.The deal had a significant impact on the Afghan National Security Forces. US support for the Afghan military was significantly reduced. And according to the terms of the deal, US military aircraft could not attack Taliban groups waiting more than 500 meters away, giving the Taliban an edge in targeting Afghan military units.The deal also exacerbated the decline in morale of the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, leading to members bargaining with the Taliban.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} The Taliban was also able to spread propaganda and disinformation about the agreement, due to a lack of information and secret annexes in the agreement that were unknown even to the then Afghan government. The Taliban propaganda aimed to convince local police and military units that the US had already handed over territories to the Taliban, and that they should abandon their positions too.NEWS, Courtney, Kube, U.S. watchdog report details cause of Afghan army's collapse, 18 May 2022, 19 May 2022,weblink NBC News,

2021 Taliban offensive

File:Taliban fighters during 2021 offensive.png|thumb|left|Taliban militants during the 2021 offensive ]]Weeks before the offensive, in April 2021, the US State Department urged American civilians in Afghanistan to "leave as soon as possible on available commercial flights".WEB, Gunerigok, Servet, 27 April 2021, Leave Afghanistan ASAP: US to citizens wishing to do so,weblink www.aa.com.tr, Anadolu Agency, WEB,weblink Afghanistan Travel Advisory – Level 4: Do Not Travel, 27 April 2021, U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, WEB, Yilek, Caitlin, 25 August 2021, U.S. involvement in Afghanistan "doesn't end" on August 31, acting ambassador says,weblink www.cbsnews.com, On 1 May 2021, the Taliban and allied militant groups began a widespread offensive shortly after a significant portion of US troops withdrew from Afghanistan.NEWS, Stanekzai, Zainullah, Greenfield, Charlotte, 4 May 2021, Taliban launches major Afghan offensive after deadline for U.S. pullout, Reuters, Graff, Peter,weblink live, registration,weblink 10 August 2021, Following its rapid defeat across the country, the Afghan National Army was left in chaos, with only two units remaining operational by mid-August: the 201st Corps and 111th Division, both based in Kabul. The capital city was left encircled after Taliban forces had captured several significant cities, including Mihtarlam, Sharana, Gardez, Asadabad, as well as other districts in the east.Projections for the longevity of the Afghan state declined significantly during the offensive. In July 2021, the US intelligence community concluded that the government of Afghanistan would collapse between six and 12 months after the departure of American troops.NEWS, Schnell, Mychael, 23 July 2021, Intel analysis: Afghan government could collapse six months after US troops withdraw, The Hill,weblink An early August assessment estimated that Kabul could hold out for several months.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Just five days before the Taliban reached Kabul, another estimate suggested the capital would last "30 to 90 days",.NEWS, Lamothe, Dan, Hudson, John, Harris, Shane, Gearan, Anne, 10 August 2021, U.S. officials warn collapse of Afghan capital could come sooner than expected, The Washington Post,weblink live, 11 August 2021,weblink 11 August 2021, NEWS,weblink Biden Insiders: Our Afghanistan Exit Is a Part of a Much Bigger Reset, David, Rothkopf, The Daily Beast, 20 August 2021, www.thedailybeast.com, Finally, two days before the collapse, an estimate suggested the city would fall within the week.WEB, 13 August 2021, Taliban expected to reach Afghan capital Kabul 'in seven days', ITV News learns,weblink live,weblink 14 August 2021, 14 August 2021, ITV News, The day before the fall, Afghanistan Policy Lab director Timor Sharan told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that "shopping in the city today, I felt people were gripped by a sense of being stuck; stuck in an uncertain future and never able to dream, aspire, think, and believe anymore".NEWS, Bezhan, Frud, 14 August 2021, 'People Are Terrified': Panic Sweeps Kabul As Taliban Moves Toward Afghan Capital,weblink live,weblink 14 August 2021, 15 August 2021, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,

Capture of Kabul

File:Afghanistan map taliban advances.webp|thumb|Taliban control of Afghanistan prior to the fall of KabulKabul

Collapse of the Afghan government

On 15 August 2021, the Taliban command instructed its forces to halt their advance at the gates of Kabul, declaring that they would not seize the city by force.NEWS, 15 August 2021, Afghanistan Live Updates: Taliban Advances on Kabul; U.S. Embassy Evacuation Underway, The New York Times,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, Muhammad Nasir Haqqani, a Taliban commander, said that when he arrived at the city's gates, he did not find a single soldier or policemen in sight.NEWS, George, Susannah, Ryan, Missy, Pager, Tyler, Constable, Pamela, Pamela Constable, Hudson, John, Witte, Griff, 28 August 2021, Surprise, panic and fateful choices: The day America lost its longest war, en, The Washington Post,weblink Locals reported that Taliban fighters were advancing into the urban areas regardless of their official orders.NEWS, Mistlin, Alex, Sullivan, Helen, Harding, Luke, Harding, Luke, Borger, Julian, Mason, Rowena, 15 August 2021, Afghanistan: Kabul to shift power to 'transitional administration' after Taliban enter city – live updates, The Guardian,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, 0261-3077, NEWS, 15 August 2021, Afghanische Regierung kündigt friedliche Machtübergabe an,weblink Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The insurgents then captured the Pul-e-Charkhi prison and released all inmates, reportedly including Islamic State – Khorasan Province and Al-Qaeda militants.WEB, Ankel, Sophia, 15 August 2021, Video shows thousands of prisoners, reportedly including Islamic State and al Qaeda fighters, freed from Kabul jail by the Taliban,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, Business Insider, During the skirmishes, the Taliban were reported to have killed around 150 IS-K militants, including the former chief Mawlawi Zia ul-Haq (also known as Abu Omar Khorasani).WEB, Rehman, Zia Ur, Afghan chaos mounts as ISIS-K tries to tarnish Taliban triumph,weblink Nikkei Asia, 15 September 2021, Bagram Airfield and the Parwan Detention Facility, which held 5,000 prisoners, also fell to the Taliban.NEWS, Afghan forces surrender Bagram air base to Taliban, The Economic Times,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, When they finally entered Kabul, Taliban fighters faced little to no resistance from the Afghan National Security Forces.WEB, Ellis-Petersen, Hannah, 16 August 2021, Taliban declares 'war is over in Afghanistan' as foreign powers exit Kabul,weblink The Guardian, en, WEB, Shams, Shamil, Saifullah, Masood, Taliban enter Kabul – What happens next? {{!, DW {{!}} 15 August 2021 |url=https://dw.com/en/taliban-enter-kabul-what-happens-next/a-58871175 |website=DW.COM |date=15 August 2021}} The fighters began raising their flag throughout the city and pressuring police to hand over their weaponry.During the fall, at least 22 Afghan Air Force planes and 24 helicopters carrying 585 Afghan military personnel fled to Uzbekistan. One Afghan A-29 Super Tucano crashed after crossing the border, with Uzbek authorities issuing conflicting reports on the cause. Two Afghan military planes carrying over 100 soldiers also landed in the Tajikistan city of Bokhtar.NEWS, 16 August 2021, Uzbekistan says hundreds of Afghan soldiers flee over border with dozens of aircraft, Reuters,weblink live, registration, 17 August 2021,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20210816215009weblink">weblink 16 August 2021, The Afghan Interior Ministry announced that President Ashraf Ghani would relinquish power and an interim government led by the Taliban would be formed.NEWS, Ferrari, Marco, 15 August 2021, Afghan president to abdicate after Taliban entered Kabul: Sources, Al Arabiya English,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, Afterward, fighting died down, although many civilians remained fearful and holed up in their homes. By late morning on 15 August, Taliban negotiators arrived at the presidential palace to begin a transfer of power.WEB, Afghan official tells AP that Taliban negotiators heading to presidential palace to prepare for a 'transfer' of power,weblink dead,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, ABC News, Although negotiations were tense, the government declared its willingness to peacefully surrender Kabul to the rebels,WEB, Seir, Ahmad, Faiez, Rahim, Akhgaf, Tameem, Gambrell, Jon, 15 August 2021, Taliban enter Kabul, await 'peaceful transfer' of power,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, AP NEWS, and urged civilians to remain calm.NEWS, Tanzeem, Ayesha, Gul, Ayaz, 15 August 2021, Reports: Taliban Enter Kabul, Voice of America,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, Al Arabiya reported that a transitional government would be formed under the leadership of former minister Ali Jalali,WEB, Issa, Tala Michel, 15 August 2021, Former interior minister Jalali seen heading interim Afghan administration: Sources,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 16 August 2021, Al Arabiya, but this was later denied by the Taliban.WEB, Heritage, Timothy, 15 August 2021, Williams, Alison, Taliban officials: there will be no transitional government in Afghanistan,weblink registration, live,weblink 15 August 2021, 16 August 2021, Reuters,

Flight of President Ghani

{{See also|Ashraf Ghani#Flight from Afghanistan}}Later that day, President Ghani and members of his family and inner circle quietly fled from Afghanistan.NEWS, In Facebook Post, President Ghani Says Leaving Afghanistan; Kabul Falls, NDTV, Reuters, 15 August 2021,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, NEWS, 15 August 2021, Amid Taliban blitz, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani flees country: Report, Business Standard India,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, NEWS, 15 August 2021, اشرف غنی افغانستان Ú†Ú¾ÙˆÚ‘ کر Ú†Ù„Û’ گئے: افغان میڈیا کا دعویٰ, ur, Urdu News – اردو نیوز,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, NEWS, 15 August 2021, اشرف غنی مستعفی، افغانستان سے فرار, ur, Hum News – ہم نیوز,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, Their own top lieutenants, important government members, and US officials were not informed they would escape until after they had already left.At 11:00 p.m. local time, Ghani eventually publicly announced on Facebook that he had fled in an attempt to avoid a bloody battle and that "the Taliban [had] won with the judgment of their swords and guns".WEB, 16 August 2021, Taliban has won, says Afghan President Ghani as militants enter Kabul,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, Deccan Herald, In another account, he defended his actions: "Two different factions of the Taliban were closing in from two different directions ... and the possibility of a massive conflict between them that would destroy the city of five million and bring havoc to the people was enormous."Ghani alleged that he did not initially plan to leave the country or even the city. He claims he first planned to take a car to the Ministry of Defense headquarters within Kabul, but the car never arrived. Instead, his national security advisor and chief of presidential security pressured him to escape the city by plane and fly to Khost, still within the country. However, once they were in the air, it was clear that "Khost had fallen and so had Jalalabad." Only then, Ghani alleges, did he realize he was going to leave Afghanistan.NEWS,weblink BBC, Ashraf Ghani: Ex-Afghan president describes moment he fled the Taliban, 30 December 2021, 5 January 2021, Kabul's presidential palace, the Arg, was evacuated by helicopters. Meanwhile, Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived at the Hamid Karzai International Airport to prepare the takeover of government.NEWS, 15 August 2021, The Taliban's terrifying triumph in Afghanistan, Economist,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, At 8:55 p.m. local time, the Taliban claimed to have taken over the Arg, which was left vacated by President Ghani earlier that day. Allegedly, all other palace employees were ordered to leave after Ghani had left.WEB, Afghanistan crisis: President Ghani flees country,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, BBC News, 15 August 2021, Reporters from Al Jazeera were later allowed into the Arg to interview Taliban militiamen.NEWS, Photos: Taliban takes control of Afghan presidential palace, Al Jazeera,weblink live, 16 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, At approximately 9:12 p.m. local time, it was reported that the Taliban would soon declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the Arg, returning to the official symbolism of the Taliban government of 1996 to 2001.WEB, Seir, Ahmad, Faiez, Rahim, Akhgar, Tameem, Gambrell, Jon, 15 August 2021, Afghanistan crisis: Taliban is soon to declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, AP News, Following the collapse of the central government, a handful of Afghan politicians, including the Speaker of the House of the People Mir Rahman Rahmani, fled the country and traveled to Pakistan. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, Sarwar Danish, Ahmad Zia Saraj also left Afghanistan.

Impact on civilians

The Taliban's advances alarmed many Kabul residents. Some locals, especially women, were fearful for the restoration of Taliban rule and reported feeling betrayed and abandoned by the Ghani government and NATO allies; a minority of residents celebrated the Taliban advance.WEB, Batrawy, Aya, 15 August 2021, An Afghan woman in Kabul's dashed hopes amid Taliban blitz,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, ABC News, NEWS, Hakim, Yalda, 13 August 2021, Afghan war: Kabul's young women plead for help as Taliban advance, BBC News,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, NEWS, 18 August 2021, I am an Afghan woman working for a western NGO in Kabul. I feel forgotten,weblink The Guardian, 21 August 2021, Zarifa Ghafari, the former mayor of Maidan Shar who was working with the defence ministry in Kabul, told media that "There is no one to help me or my family. I'm just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can't leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?"NEWS, Day, Michael, 15 August 2021, Afghanistan's first female mayor: 'I'm waiting for Taliban to come and kill me',weblink i, live,weblink 15 August 2021, 16 August 2021, It was reported that sales of burqas (known as chadaree in Afghanistan) climbed in the days leading to the Taliban's arrival, with the price of one increasing from {{Currency|200|AFN}} to as much as {{Currency|3000|AFN}} (approximately {{Currency|2.50|USD}}0 to $37.25), in fear that the Taliban would re-impose it as mandatory on women and target women who refused.NEWS, Pirzad, Zainab, Alizada, Atefa, 15 August 2021, Afghan women's defiance and despair: 'I never thought I'd have to wear a burqa. My identity will be lost', The Guardian,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, One Kabul woman told The Guardian that female students had been evacuated from their university dormitories before the Taliban could reach them, and that university-educated women across the city were hiding their diplomas.NEWS, 15 August 2021, An Afghan woman in Kabul: 'Now I have to burn everything I achieved',weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, The Guardian, Khalida Popal, former captain of the Afghanistan women's national football team, advised the women's national team players to burn their uniforms to avoid reprisals.WEB, Axon, Iain, Baldwin, Alan, 18 August 2021, Davis, Toby, Former Afghan women's captain tells players to burn kits, delete photos,weblink registration, live,weblink 18 August 2021, 20 August 2021, Reuters, Shops in the city were noted to have begun painting over and removing advertisements featuring women, and public posters featuring women were vandalized.WEB, Giordano, Chiara, 15 August 2021, Ads depicting women 'painted over' after Taliban enters Kabul,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, The Independent, WEB, Epstein, Jake,weblink Striking photo from Kabul shows why so many Afghan women fear for their future under Taliban rule, South China Morning Post, 19 August 2021, 20 August 2021, Residents reported a large increase in food prices. It was reported that a significant number of vendors in Kabul were attempting to liquidate their stocks in hopes of raising enough money to escape the country.NEWS, Golshiri, Ghazal, 15 August 2021, Dans Kaboul menacée par les talibans, les habitants « cherchent à liquider toute leur vie avant de quitter le pays, Le Monde,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 14 August 2021, Concerns were quickly raised about the thousands of refugees who had fled Taliban advances elsewhere in the country and now found themselves stuck in Kabul.NEWS, Graham-Harrison, Emma, Harding, Luke, 15 August 2021, The fall of Kabul: A 20-year mission collapses in a single day, The Guardian,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, In the evening, the National Museum of Afghanistan posted a statement on Facebook stating "huge concern about safety of Museum's Artifacts and goods for Museum Employees".NEWS, Afghanistan Updates: Biden Is Set To Speak As Chaos Unfolds In Kabul,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, NPR, NEWS, Goldsbrough, Susannah, 16 August 2021, Will the Taliban destroy Afghanistan's priceless treasures?, The Telegraph,weblink live, 16 August 2021,weblink 16 August 2021, World Health Organization mobile health teams in the city were placed on hold because of safety concerns, and the delivery of medical supplies via the airport was significantly impacted.WEB, Farge, Emma, Thomasson, Emma, 17 August 2021, Holmes, David, WHO concerned about COVID-19 in Afghanistan as jabs slow,weblink registration, live,weblink 17 August 2021, 20 August 2021, Reuters,

Kabul Airport evacuations

File:Afghanistan Evacuation 210822-M-TU241-1012.jpg|thumb|Evacuees load on to buses to be processed during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, AfghanistanAfghanistanFile:Operation Allies Refuge 210819-F-DT970-0040.jpg|thumb|Fleeing civilians aboard a US Air ForceUS Air ForceFile:Evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport 210821-M-AU949-0155.jpg|thumb|US Marines with SP-MAGTF-CR-CC at an evacuation checkpoint at Kabul Airport on 21 August]]Since the Taliban had seized all border crossings, the Hamid Karzai International Airport remained the only secure route out of Afghanistan for those seeking to escape, as the US military and its NATO partners continued to provide security for the airport and airfield.WEB, Taliban Fighters Enter Kabul As Helicopters Land At U.S. Embassy,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, NPR.org, 15 August 2021, The streets of Kabul were gridlocked with residents rushing towards the airport, with some abandoning their cars to make their way on foot through the traffic.NEWS, Faulkner, Charlie, Philp, Catherine, Zeffman, Henry, Janjua, Haroon, 15 August 2021, Panic on streets of Kabul as Taliban enter capital from all sides, The Times,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, Residents who had worked with the government and international organisations reported destroying their IDs to avoid being targeted by the Taliban, and many of those fleeing for the airport took no possessions with them.WEB, Kullab, Samya, 16 August 2021, Afghan woman in limbo at Kabul airport after Taliban sweep,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, ABC News, Associated Press, Long queues were reported outside of the airport and foreign embassies, with residents waiting in the heat in the hopes of being able to secure visas or flights out of the country.WEB, Ward, Alexander, McLeary, Paul, Seligman, Lara, 15 August 2021, Taliban seize power amid chaos in Kabul,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, Politico, After the fall of Herat on 13 August, the US and UK announced the deployment of 3,000 and 600 of their troops, respectively, to Kabul Airport in order to secure the airlifting of their nationals, embassy staff, and Afghan citizens who worked with coalition forces, out of the country. Between 14 and 31 August 2021 (when the US military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan), the US and its coalition partners evacuated more than 123,000 people from Afghanistan via Kabul Airport. Evacuees included foreign diplomatic staff and military personnel, foreign civilians, Afghan allies, and vulnerable Afghans such as journalists and human rights activists. The airlift was the largest non-combatant evacuation mission in US military history, with US military personnel taking 79,000 civilians through the airport and out of Afghanistan over the 18-day mission. The Afghans who were permitted to leave were those with proper credentials;NEWS, Schmitt, Eric, Carl, Traci, 25 August 2021, Afghanistan, Biden and the Taliban: Security Threats at Kabul Airport Prompt Multiple Warnings, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 24 March 2023, 0362-4331, many held Special Immigrant Visas or other US visas.WEB, Jessica, Donati,weblink Majority of Interpreters, Other U.S. Visa Applicants Were Left Behind in Afghanistan, The Wall Street Journal, 1 September 2021, 26 August 2022, The majority of Afghan applicants for US visas, such as those who had served as interpreters for US forces during the 20-year war, were left behind.Those evacuated included about 6,000 Americans, the vast majority of whom were dual US-Afghan citizens. The US government estimated that, at the time of the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, there were "a small number of Americans, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave". The State Department had repeatedly urged Americans to leave Afghanistan since as early as March 2021, but some chose to remain in Afghanistan.WEB, Caitlin, Yilek,weblink U.S. involvement in Afghanistan "doesn't end" on August 31, acting ambassador says, CBS News, 25 August 2021, WEB, Donovan, Slack, Dennis, Wagner,weblink 'Several hundred' Americans are unsure whether to leave Afghanistan, US officials say, USA Today, Diplomatic efforts by the US to evacuate remaining Americans who wish to leave to country continued after the military withdrawal.

Suicide bombing and US drone strikes

On 26 August, a suicide bombing occurred at Kabul Airport, killing over 180 people and injuring over 150. Among the casualties were 169 Afghan civilians and 13 American troops. Earlier that day an intelligence report indicated that a "very lethal terror attack" was likely to take place at the airport within a few hours.WEB, Afghanistan: Explosion outside Kabul airport – number of casualties unclear, Pentagon says,weblink Sky News, 26 August 2021, The Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate (ISIL-KP) claimed responsibility for the attack.NEWS, Hernandez, Joe, 28 August 2021, What We Know About ISIS-K, The Group Behind The Kabul Attack, NPR,weblink According to reports, the US gave Taliban the names of Americans and Afghan allies to evacuate.WEB, Seligman, Lara, Ward, Alexander, Desiderio, Andrew, 26 August 2021, U.S. officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate,weblink 26 August 2021, Politico, A US drone strike aimed at presumed Islamic State members suspected of planning a suicide bombings at the Kabul airport killed a family of 10 civilians in an adjacent car, including 7 children and an employee of a US aid organization.NEWS, Bulos, Nabih, 30 August 2021, Family says 7 children were killed in Kabul drone strike; U.S. is investigating, en, Los Angeles Times,weblink 30 August 2021, “I want Joe Biden to know about this. Why do you attack these people and say it’s Daesh?” he said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym, WEB, Gadzo, Mersiha, Najjar, Farah, 29 August 2021, Blasts rock Kabul as US drone strike hits ISKP bombers,weblink 29 August 2021, Al Jazeera, en, On 17 September, the Pentagon admitted the strike was a mistake.NEWS,weblinkweblink 28 December 2021, limited, Pentagon acknowledges Aug. 29 drone strike in Afghanistan was a tragic mistake that killed 10 civilians., Eric, Schmitt, Helene, Cooper, The New York Times, 17 September 2021, {{cbignore}}

Reactions

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai pressed publicly for a peaceful transition of power, promising he would remain in Kabul with his daughters.NEWS, Bose, Saikat Kumar, 15 August 2021, In Video With Daughters, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai Appeals To Taliban,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, NDTV, Other figures closely associated with the US-backed Afghan government, including Gul Agha Sherzai, the former governor of Nangahar province, congratulated Taliban on their victory.File:Pro-Islamic Republic of Afghanistan rally, Rotterdam (21 August 2021) 21.jpg|thumb|Protest in RotterdamRotterdamThe United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, India, and Sweden evacuated their embassies. Some countries like China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, and Qatar said that they do not intend to shut down their embassies.NEWS, 15 August 2021, World reacts as Taliban closes in on Afghan capital, Al Jazeera,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 15 August 2021, NEWS, Qatar is an 'impartial mediator' amid Afghanistan evacuations: FM,weblink Al-Jazeera, 23 August 2021, WEB, KurÅŸun, Muhammet, 17 August 2021, Iran says embassy, consulate in Afghanistan open,weblink 21 August 2021, Anadolu Agency, WEB,weblink Turkish Embassy in Kabul continues operations: FM ÇavuÅŸoÄŸlu, Hürriyet Daily News, 16 August 2021, 21 August 2021, Several governments, including Sweden, Germany, and Finland, announced that they would be suspending development aid to Afghanistan.WEB, 17 August 2021, Sweden halts aid for Afghanistan but vows it's 'not abandoning the people',weblink live,weblink 17 August 2021, 17 August 2021, The Local, Other countries, including those with no diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, have either started or hastened efforts to assist their citizens with leaving the country.NEWS, Mellen, Ruby, Parker, Claire, 14 August 2021, Here are the countries evacuating their embassies in Kabul as the Taliban takes over, The Washington Post,weblink 18 August 2021, NEWS, 18 August 2021, Asian countries evacuate diplomats, citizens as Taliban declares general amnesty, Manila Bulletin, Xinhua,weblink 18 August 2021,weblink 18 August 2021, According to North Press, a Syrian news outlet, the morale of jihadist and extremist groups in regions such as Syria and Iraq, including Tahrir al-Sham, had risen dramatically following the fall of Kabul.NEWS, Oueiss, Hadeel, 16 August 2021, Extremists' morale high after Taliban advance: American analyst, North Press Agency,weblink live, 16 August 2021,weblink 16 August 2021, {{Undue weight inline|date=August 2021}}NEWS, Byaruhanga, Catherine, 21 August 2021,weblink Africa's jihadists: What Taliban takeover of Afghanistan means, BBC News, 21 August 2021, Colin Clarke, research director at the Soufan Center stated that he was "expecting a heavy wave of propaganda [from jihadist groups], especially with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks".NEWS,weblink La victoire des talibans, source d'inspiration pour le djihadisme mondial, Ici Radio-Canada Télé, Agence France-Presse, 19 August 2021, fr, WEB, Basit, Abdul, 18 August 2021, A Taliban Takeover Will Strengthen Pakistan's Jihadis,weblink 19 August 2021, Foreign Policy, NEWS,weblink Why not all Islamist extremists are buoyed by the Taliban's victory, 20 August 2021, The Guardian, Jason, Burke, 21 August 2021, The Taliban takeover was also applauded by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and some far-right supporters in North America and Europe.NEWS, Hamas praises Taliban for causing American 'downfall' in Afghanistan,weblink The Times of Israel, Aaron, Boxerman, 16 August 2021, 31 August 2021, WEB, Scott, Mark, 18 August 2021, Western far-right groups claim Taliban victory as their own,weblink 19 August 2021, Politico, NEWS, Makuch, Ben, 16 August 2021,weblink The Far Right Is Celebrating the Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan, Vice News, 21 August 2021, British prime minister Boris Johnson blamed the United States for the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan.NEWS, Blame on Biden? UK PM Johnson says US decision to pull out of Afghanistan 'accelerated' events,weblink The Week, 16 August 2021, Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union who had overseen the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988, argued that "NATO and the United States should have admitted failure earlier" and that the NATO campaign in Afghanistan was "a failed enterprise from the start" which was founded on "the exaggeration of a threat and poorly defined geopolitical ideas".NEWS, 17 August 2021, Gorbachev, who pulled Soviets from Afghanistan, says U.S. campaign was doomed from start,weblink live,weblink 17 August 2021, 17 August 2021, NBC News, Reuters, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who had survived a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan assassination attempt in Pakistan in 2012, stated that she was in "complete shock" and was "deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates".NEWS, Murray, Jessica, 16 August 2021, Malala Yousafzai 'deeply worried' as Taliban take control in Afghanistan,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, The Guardian, Afghan author Khaled Hosseini has also shared his concerns over the future of women's rights in Afghanistan,WEB, 16 August 2021, Taliban Systematically Terrorised Women, Says Afghani Writer Khaled Hosseini,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, News18, and expressed his hope that the Taliban would not return to the "violence and cruelty" of the 1990s.WEB, 15 August 2021, 'Kite Runner' author on the Taliban takeover: 'Hard to describe how devastating it is',weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, American Voices, MSNBC, Human Rights Watch stated that "standing beside Afghan women in their struggle, and finding tools to pressure the Taliban and the political will to do so, is the least—the very least—the international community could do".WEB, 17 August 2021, The Fragility of Women's Rights in Afghanistan,weblink live,weblink 17 August 2021, 17 August 2021, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International stated that the situation was "a tragedy that should have been foreseen and averted" and called for governments to "take every necessary measure to ensure the safe passage out of Afghanistan for all those at risk of being targeted by the Taliban".WEB, 16 August 2021, International community must avert further tragedy in Afghanistan,weblink live,weblink 17 August 2021, 17 August 2021, amnesty.org, The fall of Afghanistan also had a negative impact on United Kingdom–United States and United States–European Union relations,NEWS, U.S. and German relations at a crossroads as Afghanistan crisis unfolds,weblink CNBC, Silvia, Amaro, 24 August 2021, 31 August 2021, NEWS, Disbelief and betrayal: Europe reacts to Biden's Afghanistan 'miscalculation',weblink Politico, Matthew, Karnitschnig, 17 August 2021, 31 August 2021, NEWS, UK struggles for influence as Afghan crisis strains US ties,weblink Associated Press, Jill, Lawless, 23 August 2021, with the British government leaking to the media complaints of the American government actions.WEB, Sabbagh, Dan, 22 August 2021, Nosedive in UK-US relations is another casualty of Afghanistan's fall,weblink 23 August 2021, The Guardian, en, In the UK, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab faced calls to resign after it was revealed he had gone on holiday to Greece just prior to the fall and had refused attempts to contact him as developments occurred.WEB,weblink Dominic Raab 'refused to be contacted' in days before Afghanistan fell, The Guardian, Aubrey, Allegretti, Jessica, Elgot, Peter, Walker, Matthew, Weaver, 19 August 2021, 19 August 2021,weblink 20 August 2021, live, The American government, led by President Joe Biden, also faced significant domestic criticism.NEWS, "Move heaven and earth" pressure on Biden to speed up visas for Afghans who helped US,weblink Strauss, Daniel, 20 August 2021, 21 August 2021, The Guardian, NEWS, Joe Biden's botched Afghanistan exit is a disaster at home and abroad long in the making,weblink Collinson, Stephen, 16 August 2021, 21 August 2021, CNN, NEWS, As US "abandons" Afghans, military veterans feel anger, confusion,weblink Roberts, Williams, 20 August 2021, 21 August 2021, Al Jazeera, NEWS, Biden finds few Capitol Hill allies amid Afghanistan backlash,weblink Carney, Jordan, 18 August 2021, 21 August 2021, The Hill, Former American presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, each of whom had overseen significant developments in the War in Afghanistan, also faced criticism.MAGAZINE, Joe Biden's Disastrous Afghanistan Exit is in Keeping with American Tradition,weblink Lutz, Eric, 16 August 2021, 21 August 2021, Vanity Fair, President Biden's approval rating dropped to 41% and only 26% of Americans said they support Biden's handling of the situation in Afghanistan.NEWS, Page, Susan, Brown, Matthew, Quarshie, Mabinty, 24 August 2021, Exclusive: Americans' harsh judgment on Afghanistan costs Biden's approval, down to 41%, USA Today,weblink Some Republicans, including Senators Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, and former Ambassador Nikki Haley, called on Biden to resign.NEWS, Dorman, Sam, 26 August 2021, Haley, Blackburn, other Republicans call for Biden's resignation or impeachment after attack at Kabul airport, Fox News,weblink Some American white nationalists and related extremists celebrated the Taliban takeover and American withdrawal on social media. White nationalist Nick Fuentes posted on the Telegram messaging service, "The Taliban is a conservative, religious force, the US is godless and liberal. The defeat of the US government in Afghanistan is unequivocally a positive development". Some experts warned American extremists would use events in Afghanistan to push disinformation, organize and recruit.WEB,weblink Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists Celebrate Taliban Takeover, Rachael, Levy, 17 August 2021, WSJ, WEB, Miller, Christopher, 19 August 2021, America's Far-Right Extremists Are Drawing Inspiration From The Taliban's Victory In Afghanistan,weblink BuzzFeed News,

Analysis

{{Further|2021 Taliban offensive#Key factors}}File:President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are briefed by their national security team.jpg|thumb|US President Joe Biden discussing the fall of Kabul with the National Security Council on 18 August 2021]]Multiple commentators and public figures described the fall of Kabul and of the Islamic republic as a significant disaster and a failure for NATO. German politician Armin Laschet, minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia and successor to Angela Merkel as CDU/CSU leader, stated that it was "the biggest debacle that NATO has suffered since its creation and it's a change of era that we are confronted with". British parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat stated that the collapse was "the biggest single policy disaster since Suez".NEWS, Sandford, Alasdair, 16 August 2021, 'NATO's biggest debacle': Afghanistan troop withdrawals slammed,weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, Euronews, Journalist Nick Turse argued that "without a true reevaluation this time around, the US risks falling into well-worn patterns that may, one day, make the military debacles in Southeast and Southwest Asia look terribly small".WEB, Turse, Nick, 15 August 2021, The Fall of Kabul,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, The Intercept, Nick Turse, Some, however, rejected claims of failure. Addressing the House of Commons on 18 August, British prime minister Boris Johnson argued that the UK had joined "a mission to extirpate al-Qaeda in that country and to do whatever we could to stabilise Afghanistan, in spite of all the difficulties and challenges we knew we would face and we succeeded in that core mission", additionally stating that "what is not true is to say the UK government was unprepared or did not foresee this".WEB, 19 August 2021, MPs on all sides accuse Boris Johnson of Afghanistan failures,weblink 19 August 2021, BBC News, The 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, described the execution of the withdrawal of troops as the greatest "humiliation" in the history of his countryWEB, Trump: US 'humiliated' over Afghan withdrawal,weblink Marca, 20 August 2021, 18 August 2021, WEB, Clench, Sam, 18 August 2021, Donald Trump calls Afghanistan withdrawal the 'greatest embarrassment' in US history,weblink 20 August 2021, News.com.au, and stated that he would have first taken out the American civilians and diplomats, then their Afghan collaborators, all the advanced equipment of the Afghan National Army donated by the US army and in last place take out the military, all this with the condition that the Taliban complied with the US–Taliban deal. The former president is also against the interventionist policy of his country, describing it as a "horrible decision" to have intervened in the Middle East and that it has not improved the situation in the last 20 years.WEB, Trump slams Biden's 'humiliating' withdrawal from Afghanistan,weblink Fox News, 18 August 2021, 20 August 2021,

Causes

Collapse of Afghan government and security forces

{{See also|Ghost soldiers}}US intelligence assessments originally concluded Kabul would fall within months or weeks following withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, though the security situation rapidly deteriorated, leading President Joe Biden to concede on 16 August that "this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated".Several Afghan officials placed the blame for the collapse at the feet of the Ghani government.WEB, Latifi, Ali M, 15 August 2021, 'Unpatriotic': Afghans slam President Ghani's swift departure,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 16 August 2021, Al Jazeera, WEB, Teh, Cheryl, 16 August 2021, The Afghan Embassy in India sent out a tweet calling Afghan President Ashraf Ghani a 'traitor' who 'screwed and f—ed everything up',weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, Business Insider, Afghan National Reconciliation Council chairman Abdullah Abdullah denounced Ghani's fleeing of the country, stating that "The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation. God should hold him accountable". General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, former ANA chief of staff and interim minister of defence, tweeted "They tied our hands from behind and sold the country. Curse Ghani and his gang".WEB, Seir, Ahmad, Faiez, Rahim, Akhgar, Tameem, Gambrell, Jon, 15 August 2021, Afghan president flees the country as Taliban move on Kabul,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, CTV News, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that "ultimately, the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban... This failure of the Afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today".WEB, 17 August 2021, NATO chief blames Afghan leadership for Kabul collapse,weblink live,weblink 17 August 2021, 17 August 2021, Al Jazeera, The imminent collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), and their inability to withstand the Taliban offensive has also been the subject of focus. It has been argued that despite the US investing over $85 billion to train and equip Afghan security forces since 2001, the Afghan forces had proven to be woefully inept, inadequate and poorly-trained to counter the looming insurgency.NEWS,weblink Afghan security forces' wholesale collapse was years in the making, Washington Post, 16 August 2021, 20 August 2021, Craig, Whitlock, United States press sources explain that Ghani and his cabinet visited the White House in 25 June, asked for US support and were stunned to realize that the Biden administration evaded any compromise to provide the helicopters or logistical support to the Afghan military they asked. Afghan chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission was stunned to discover that many of the Americans had already “concluded that Afghanistan was a lost cause, and had sort of made peace with themselves.” They asked her what contingency plans she was making to flee Kabul and go into exile. The previous Trump US administration was determined to end the war with or without the Afghan President's involvement, appointed a special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, to negotiate directly with the Taliban with clear instructions to "make a deal with the Taliban that would allow for a quick American military withdrawal". The deal with the Taliban reached by the Biden administration included the US led coalition not attacking the Taliban in return for the Taliban not attacking US coalition troops but allowed Taliban to attack Afghan forces.MAGAZINE, Coll, Steve, The Secret History of the U.S. Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan,weblink The New Yorker, 4 September 2023,

NATO withdrawal

(File:Evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport; Image 4 of 16.jpg|thumb|American, British, and Turkish soldiers assist a child evacuating from Kabul Airport, 20 August 2021)David E. Sanger, a New York Times correspondent, analyzed the decision to leave Afghanistan by Joe Biden, and consequently the manner of the fall of Kabul, as the result of four basic assumptions, or miscalculations: that there was enough time before the Afghan government collapsed for the US to withdraw, that the Afghan forces had "the same drive" to win as the Taliban did, that there was "a well-planned system for evacuating the embassy" and Afghans who had helped the US and their families, and that if the Taliban made it to Kabul, that there would be a "bloody block-by-block civil war" taking place in its streets.NEWS, Barbaro, Michael, Harper, Sydney, Nguyen, Diana, Toeniskoetter, Clare, Lin, M. J. Davis, Lozano, Marion, Powell, Dan, Wood, Chris, 17 August 2021, America's Miscalculations, Afghanistan's Collapse, en-US, The New York Times,weblink live, 24 March 2023,weblink 28 December 2021, 0362-4331,

Comparisons

Egypt 1956

In an article in The Conversation, William Maley, an emeritus at the Australian National University, compared the fall of Kabul to the 1956 Suez Crisis and its effects on the perception of the United Kingdom as a global power, stating that Biden had "failed the people of Afghanistan and tarnished US credibility around the world", stating that the United States "increasingly appears a fading power internationally". According to Maley, the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is due to Biden's inexperience in the field of foreign policy, Western lack of understanding of Afghan society, and the legitimization that the Taliban received with the Trump-led US–Taliban deal. He concluded by quoting former British prime minister David Lloyd George, who said in 1940 that "our promissory notes are now rubbish on the market", stating that, as a result of its failures over Afghanistan, the Biden administration is rapidly heading in a similar direction.WEB, Maley, William, How Joe Biden failed the people of Afghanistan — and tarnished US credibility around the world,weblink 23 August 2021, The Conversation, 16 August 2021, en,

Cuba 1961

Former American defense secretary Leon Panetta compared the fall of Kabul to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, saying that "President Kennedy took responsibility for what took place. I strongly recommend to President Biden that he take responsibility ... admit the mistakes that were made".NEWS, Mastrangelo, Dominick, 16 August 2021, Leon Panetta compares fall of Afghanistan to Bay of Pigs, The Hill,weblink live, 16 August 2021,weblink 17 August 2021,

Vietnam 1975

{{External media|float=right|width=250|image1=A widely-shared image shows a helicopter landing in the US Embassy courtyard. The Army CH-47 Chinook evacuated diplomatic staff to Kabul airport as the city fell.|image2=Many comparisons were drawn to a similar photo from the fall of Saigon In it, a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight landed on the embassy roof to evacuate the final Americans in South Vietnam.WEB, Last Days in Vietnam: The Embassy Evacuation,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, PBS, 15 August 2021, |caption=|title=External images}}The events were compared by many commentators and the public to the Fall of Saigon at the end of Vietnam War in April 1975.NEWS, Rash, John, 13 August 2021, Rash Report: In Kabul, shadows of Saigon, Star Tribune,weblink live, 15 August 2021,weblink 13 August 2021, NEWS, 15 August 2021, Editorial: President Biden's Saigon moment,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, Boston Herald, NEWS, Kabul evacuations 'sequel to humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975',weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, Al Jazeera, WEB, Elston, Thuan Le, 16 August 2021, Fall of Kabul, fall of Saigon: Their horror was our horror. Anguished, we pray for a miracle,weblink 20 August 2021, USA Today, WEB,weblink Après la "défaite de Kaboul", l'Allemagne envisage de changer son fusil d'épaule, Libération, Christophe, Bourdoiseau, 19 August 2021, 20 August 2021, fr, A month before the Taliban arrived in Kabul, American president Joe Biden had rejected the comparison, stating that "the Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army... There's going to be no circumstance for you to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable".NEWS, Pettypiece, Shannon, As the Taliban gains ground, Biden grapples with the ghosts of Saigon,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, NBC News, Reporters argued that Biden's comments did not age well, as embassy staff burned documents and "helicopters were pictured hovering above the compound, shuttling diplomats to the airport" less than a month later. Rear Admiral Larry Chambers, who had given the order to push helicopters off the {{USS|Midway|CV-41|6}} during Operation Frequent Wind to make way for more evacuee aircraft from Saigon to land, stated that "what is happening now is worse than what happened in Vietnam", elaborating "[In Vietnam] we tried to get out as many people who worked with us as we could... In Afghanistan, we are abandoning the folks who supported us while we were there".WEB, Altman, Howard, 15 August 2021, 'What's happening now is worse': Midway skipper who pushed choppers off deck in fall of Saigon,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, Air Force Times, On the day the Taliban entered Kabul, American secretary of state Blinken rejected the comparison to Saigon, stating on an ABC's This Week interview that "this is manifestly not Saigon. We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11, and that mission has been successful".NEWS, Pilkington, Ed, 15 August 2021, 'This is manifestly not Saigon': Blinken defends US mission in Afghanistan,weblink live,weblink 15 August 2021, 15 August 2021, The Guardian,

Afghanistan 1992

Ross Douthat of The New York Times compared the 1992 fall of Kabul with the fall in 2021 and remarked that the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan managed to survive against the Afghan mujahideen for 3 years after the withdrawal of Soviet forces, compared to the few months for the American-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.NEWS, Douthat, Ross, 31 August 2021, Opinion {{!, Joe Biden's Critics Lost Afghanistan|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/afghanistan-biden.html|access-date=18 September 2021|issn=0362-4331}} Zamir Kubalov, the Russian envoy for Afghanistan also remarked that the "regime created by the Americans tumbled down even before they left" in comparison to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.WEB, Strozewski, Zoe, 19 August 2021, Russia gloats that its government lasted longer in Afghanistan than U.S. 'regime',weblink 18 September 2021, Newsweek, en,

Iraq 2014

Ibrahim al-Marashi of California State University, San Marcos compared it to the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, in which IS overran large parts of Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate, arguing that the collapses were caused by the imposition of "rigid, hierarchical American military doctrine" on the Afghan and Iraqi militaries, that the Taliban and Daesh were more cohesive armed groups, and that the NATO-backed Afghan and Iraqi governments had "allowed networks of patronage and corruption to take root".WEB, Al-Marashi, Ibrahim, 17 August 2021, The collapse of Afghan military: We've seen this movie before,weblink live,weblink 17 August 2021, 17 August 2021, Al Jazeera, The Iraqi government and army were equally plagued by structural corruption and unknown amount of ghost soldiers.

Ukraine

Security Council of Russia secretary Nikolai Patrushev compared the situation to Ukraine–United States relations, stating that "a similar situation awaits supporters of the American choice in Ukraine".WEB, 19 August 2021, US will abandon Ukraine like Afghanistan, senior Russian official says,weblink 20 August 2021, South China Morning Post, Reuters, The collapse led to the Biden administration receiving immense criticism, and has challenged Biden's policy of pro-activeness in aiding US allies.WEB, Kempe, Frederick, 21 August 2021, Op-ed: The disaster in Afghanistan threatens Biden's 'America is back' message to allies,weblink CNBC, NEWS, Sopel, Jon, 17 August 2021, Afghan chaos undercuts Biden's promise of competence, BBC News,weblink WEB, Frantzman, Seth J., 21 August 2021, How the US disaster in giving Afghanistan to the Taliban happened,weblink The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com, WEB, Casert, Raf, 19 August 2021, Allies embraced Biden. Did Kabul lay bare "great illusion"?,weblink AP NEWS, Russia invaded Ukraine six months after the fall of Kabul; former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt wrote in The Diplomatic Courier that failure in Afghanistan may have caused Russia to feel safer to attack Ukraine.WEB, Bildt, Carl, 16 August 2022, Did the Afghan Failure Lead to the Ukraine War?,weblink The Diplomatic Courier, en,

Taiwan

State-run media in China compared the situation in Afghanistan to the United States' relations with Taiwan. It questioned the former's commitment to defend the latter if China decides to take control of Taiwan, which it claims to be its province, by force.NEWS, Birtles, Bill, 17 August 2021, Beijing used Afghanistan to mock America. It also gave them clues about how a potential war would play out, ABC News,weblink 18 August 2021,

Aftermath

{{Further|2021 Taliban offensive#Aftermath}}{{See also|List of decrees by Hibatullah Akhundzada}}(File:Crowds in front of Kabul International Airport.webm|thumb|Taliban fighters blocking civilians from entering Kabul Airport, 16 August 2021)File:Taliban Humvee in Kabul, August 2021 (cropped).png|thumb|Taliban fighters patrolling Kabul in a HumveeHumveeThe day after the fall of Kabul, 16 August, most of the city's streets had been deserted, save for those leading to the airport, with businesses shuttered and security checkpoints unmanned. Taliban fighters, however, were sighted parading their flag and weapons and taking selfies next to Kabul landmarks.NEWS, Latifi, Ali M., 16 August 2021, Kabul near standstill on day one of the Taliban's 'Emirate',weblink live,weblink 16 August 2021, 16 August 2021, Al Jazeera, Taliban soldiers were also sighted going door-to-door searching for Afghan government workers and human rights activists.WEB, Ormiston, Susan, 18 August 2021, 'I'm scared': Afghan who worked with foreign partners fearful of Taliban visits,weblink 19 August 2021, CBC, In the days after the fall, some residents reported that the Taliban had re-imposed a ban on women leaving their homes without a male guardian present. Furthermore, multiple female-owned businesses in the city were shut down.NEWS, 19 August 2021, As I walk around Kabul, the streets are empty of women,weblink The Guardian, 20 August 2021, Local television stations began to censor foreign and entertainment broadcasts, while state-owned broadcasters stopped broadcasting almost all but Taliban statements and Islamic sermons.NEWS, Zia, Hujjatullah, 19 August 2021, I woke up to the Taliban walking in my city,weblink 20 August 2021, Al Jazeera, NEWS, Bezhan, Frud, 18 August 2021, Fewer Women, No Entertainment: Kabul's Media Scene Transforms After Taliban Takeover, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,weblink 20 August 2021, The Taliban had also started to remove female journalists from their positions.NEWS, Afghanistan. Une présentatrice télé raconte avoir été empêchée de travailler par les talibans,weblink 19 August 2021, Ouest France, Agence France-Presse, fr, On 17 August, the Taliban held their first official news conference in Kabul, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stating that the Taliban wished to "assure the international community, including the United States that nobody will be harmed in Afghanistan" and that "after consultations that are going to be completed very soon, we will be witnessing the formation of a strong Islamic and inclusive government".WEB, 17 August 2021, Transcript of Taliban's first news conference in Kabul,weblink 18 August 2021, Al Jazeera, On 21 August, Taliban co-founder and political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kabul for the first time in over a decade as the Taliban began internal negotiations on how to govern the country.WEB,weblink Top Taliban leader flies into Kabul for talks on setting up new Afghan regime, 21 August 2021, The Guardian, Hannah, Ellis-Petersen, 21 August 2021, On the evening of 18 August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that it had welcomed former president Ghani into the UAE on humanitarian grounds.WEB, Salem, Mostafa, John, Tara, Lister, Tim, Ritchie, Hannah, 18 August 2021, Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani emerges in the UAE,weblink 18 August 2021, CNN, On 19 August, Ghani released a video denying reports he had carried a large sum of money with him as he fled and that he was negotiating a return to Afghanistan.NEWS, Kwok, Caroline, Mang, Carol, 19 August 2021,weblink Ghani 'in talks' for return to Afghanistan, South China Morning Post, 21 August 2021, Other government, military or anti-Taliban officials also fled to India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.In the days following the fall, United States government agencies began erasing public articles and images featuring Afghan civilians from their websites, fearing that the new Taliban government might use those websites to identify and target civilians for reprisals.NEWS, 18 August 2021, US agencies scrub websites in bid to protect Afghans,weblink 18 August 2021, Al Jazeera, The U.S. government also announced that it would be freezing $9.5 billion worth of assets belonging to Da Afghanistan Bank, the Afghan central bank, in order to prevent Taliban access to the funds.WEB, Mohsin, Saleha, 18 August 2021, US freezes Afghan central bank's assets of $9.5bn,weblink 18 August 2021, Al Jazeera, The International Monetary Fund also announced that it would be denying the Taliban access to special drawing rights.WEB, Martin, Eric, 18 August 2021, IMF Curbs Afghanistan's Funding Access, Squeezing Taliban,weblink 19 August 2021, Bloomberg, The Western Union and MoneyGram also suspended their financial services in Afghanistan.NEWS, Arnold, Tom, 19 August 2021, Western Union suspends services in Afghanistan, en, Reuters,weblink 3 October 2021, Furthermore, several social media companies, including Facebook and YouTube, announced that they would continue to ban Taliban content from their platforms.WEB, Lee, Katy, 19 August 2021, Social Media Giants Grapple With Taliban Dilemma,weblink 19 August 2021, International Business Times, WEB, Thorbecke, Catherine, 19 August 2021, How the Taliban uses social media to seek legitimacy in the West, sow chaos at home,weblink 19 August 2021, ABC News, Facebook also put a feature in place allowing Afghans to lock their accounts to prevent the Taliban from collecting their information.NEWS,weblink Facebook met en place des mesures pour que les Afghans vulnérables protègent leur compte des talibans, Le Monde.fr, 20 August 2021, Le Monde, The Taliban have decried such bans, arguing that it infringes on their right to free speech.WEB,weblink Taliban Spokesman Accuses Facebook of Stifling Free Speech by Banning Group, The Intercept, Robert, Mackey, 18 August 2021, 20 August 2021, A surge in the creation of new, pro-Taliban accounts was reported on Twitter, one of the few social media companies that did not ban the group, in the days after the fall.WEB,weblink Taliban ramp up on social media, defying bans by the platforms, The Seattle Times, Sheera, Frenkel, Ben, Decker, 18 August 2021, 20 August 2021,

Refugees

{{See also|Afghan refugees}}(File:Evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport; Image 1 of 3.jpg|thumb|Civilians preparing to be airlifted from Kabul Airport, 18 August 2021)After the fall of Kabul and the Islamic Republic, a surge in refugees trying to escape from the Taliban was to be expected. Therefore, in the days following the toppling of the Islamic Republic, numerous governments announced their plans regarding the number of refugees they were going to take in.WEB, 18 August 2021, Finnish Immigration Service prepares for Afghan refugees, sees repeat of 2015 as unlikely,weblink 18 August 2021, Yle Uutiset News, WEB, Galloway, Anthony, 18 August 2021, Australia to bring in 3000 Afghans in initial intake but plans for more,weblink 17 May 2022, The Sydney Morning Herald, en, After the capture of Kabul, more than 300,000 Afghan civilians who worked for the US were at risk of Taliban retaliation.NEWS, Jordan, Miriam, 16 August 2021, Thousands Who Helped the U.S. in Afghanistan Are Trapped. What Happens Next?, The New York Times,weblinkweblink 28 December 2021, limited, 19 August 2021, {{cbignore}} As a result, an internationally organized airlift was conducted to prevent any harm from befalling these civilians. This operation was spearheaded by the US and on 31 August, the mission concluded with more than 123,000 people being escorted out of the country via airlift.WEB, Secretary Antony J. Blinken's Remarks on Afghanistan,weblink 17 May 2022, United States Department of State, en, The endeavor to evacuate all these civilians did not go uncontested. The Taliban did not comply with the airlift, and tensions surrounding the airport were very high. On 26 August, an ISIS suicide attack killed 13 US soldiers and 170 civilians at the international airport.NEWS, Schmitt, Eric, Cooper, Helene, 4 February 2022, Lone ISIS Bomber Carried Out Attack at Kabul Airport, Pentagon Says, en-US, The New York Times,weblink 17 May 2022, 0362-4331, After a couple of months of research, the US military concluded that the assault was done by a lone bomber and could have been prevented.NEWS, Stewart, Phil, Ayyub, Rami, 5 February 2022, Single bomber carried out Kabul airport attack, U.S. military says, en, Reuters,weblink 17 May 2022, The event was confusing with the US army and Taliban accusing each other of initially opening fire. American retaliation followed soon and three days later, out of fear of a bloody repetition, the US wrongfully targeted a white car with a drone strike, killing 10 civilians including seven children.JOURNAL, January 2022, United States Grapples with Aftermath of Withdrawal from Afghanistan, American Journal of International Law, en, 116, 1, 190–197, 10.1017/ajil.2021.68, 245910339, 0002-9300, free, A number of countries refused to grant asylum to Afghans who had been working as embassy guards as many of those guards had been technically employed as contractors. On 19 August 125 guards of the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Kabul were told by telephone they no longer had jobs and were ineligible for UK protection because they were employed through a contractor, GardaWorld, unlike guards at the US embassy who were evacuated.WEB, Gentleman, Amelia, 19 August 2021, Guards at Kabul embassy told they are ineligible for UK protection,weblink The Guardian, 23 August 2021, It was reported on 16 June 2022, that these guards were targeted by the Taliban for beatings alongside Afghans who worked under the British Embassy.NEWS, Kotecha, Sima, 16 June 2022, Afghanistan: UK embassy staff allege Taliban beatings and torture, BBC News,weblink Finnish minister of foreign affairs Pekka Haavisto stated that the Finnish embassy guards were "sub-contractors" and could not be included on evacuation lists.WEB,weblink Embassy guard on Finns' departure: "We will not forgive them", Yle Uutiset, 24 August 2021, 25 August 2021, The Australian government had initially announced the same for their embassy guards, but backtracked a day later and granted them visas.WEB,weblink Australia grants visas for former Kabul embassy guards a day after rejecting them, SBS News, Rashida, Yosufzai, Anna, Henderson, 25 August 2021, The immense collective action taken to airlift civilians at risk under the rule of the Taliban was not an easy feat and far from finished. The escape from Afghanistan was the first step in an exhausting journey, most civilians had left the country in a panic and did not bring or possess the right documentation.NEWS, Cooke, Kristina, Rosenberg, Mica, 3 September 2021, Evacuated Afghans, hoping to resettle in U.S., face extended limbo in third countries, en, Reuters,weblink 17 May 2022, Many civilians were transferred to transit hubs in states like Italy, Germany and Qatar where they await further decisions from resettlement organisations. The process to resettle an enormous group of refugees is very complicated, especially because many of these refugees try to enter the US, with or without the correct visas. As of August 2023, as many as 150,000 Afghans who had assisted the United States remained in Afghanistan, including individuals who had worked closely with US military forces.NEWS, Nearly two years later, Afghan allies still left hoping for help,weblink Military Times, 22 August 2023,

Resistance

Panjshir conflict

(File:Panjshir River Valley in May 2011.jpg|thumb|The Panjshir Valley)With the fall of Kabul, former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban forces based in the province Panjshir, led by Ahmad Massoud and former vice president Amrullah Saleh, became the primary organized resistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan.WEB, Leadership,weblink 19 August 2021, Northern Alliance: Fighting for a Free Afghanistan, Friends of the Northern Alliance, WEB, 18 August 2021, 'Panjshir stands strong': Afghanistan's last holdout against the Taliban,weblink The Guardian, Emma, Graham-Harrison, 20 August 2021, The Afghan embassy in Tajikistan replaced their presidential portrait of Ghani with one of Saleh and submitted a request to Interpol to have arrest warrants issued for Ghani, along with his chief advisor Fazel Mahmood and National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib, on charges of having stolen from the Afghan treasury.WEB, Ray, Siladitya, Dangor, Graison, 18 August 2021, Afghan Embassy In Tajikistan Demands Interpol Arrest Escaped Former President Ashraf Ghani,weblink 18 August 2021, Forbes, Massoud has stated his desire to negotiate with the Taliban.WEB, Mackenzie, James, 22 August 2021, Anti-Taliban leader Massoud wants to talk but ready to fight,weblink 22 August 2021, Reuters, en, The conflict between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), formerly known as the Northern Alliance, ostensibly had concluded on 6 September, when Taliban fighters took the Panjshir Valley, the final holdout of resistance.NEWS, O'Grady, Siobhán, Pannett, Rachel, Khan, Haq Nawaz, Mehrdad, Ezzatullah, 6 September 2021, Panjshir Valley, last resistance holdout in Afghanistan, falls to the Taliban, The Washington Post,weblink 18 May 2022, However, the NRF has not been wiped out and the resistance to Taliban leadership is still existing, although on a lesser scale than its initial size. On 7 May 2022, the insurgent group claimed they had taken control over three northern districts in Panjshir. The Taliban denied this, saying that these claims were untrue.WEB, 7 May 2022, Offensive launched against Taliban rule in Panjshir: Armed group,weblink 18 May 2022, Al Arabiya English, en,

Protests

On 17 August, a small protest was held by several women in Kabul demanding equal rights for women, the first reported women's protest against the new government.WEB, 18 August 2021, Watch: Afghan women hold street protest as Taliban fighters look on,weblink 18 August 2021, The Indian Express, On 18 August, larger protests also attended by men emerged in three eastern Pashtun-dominated cities: Jalalabad, Khost, and Asadabad, with protestors waving the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and taking down the Taliban flag.NEWS, 18 August 2021, Taliban keep some evacuees from reaching Kabul airport, as U.S. vows to finish airlift, Reuters,weblink live, registration, 21 August 2021,weblink 18 August 2021, WEB,weblink Taliban militants violently disperse rare Afghan protest, AP News, Seir, Ahmad, Faiez, Rahim, Gannon, Kathy, Gambrell, Jon, 19 August 2021, 20 August 2021, WEB,weblink Afghanistan's Taliban Rulers Meet Their First Political Protests With Gunfire, The Wall Street Journal, Saeed, Shah, Sune Engel, Rasmussen, 18 August 2021, 20 August 2021, In Jalalabad, the Taliban opened fire, killing three and wounding over a dozen.NEWS, 19 August 2021, Afghan protests spread to Kabul in early challenge to Taliban, Reuters,weblink live, registration,weblink 19 August 2021, On 19 August, demonstrations spread to various parts of Kabul, including one large protest near Kabul Airport where cars and people waved the flag of the republic, and another with over 200 peopleNEWS, 19 August 2021, Protests Spread to Kabul as Taliban Struggle to Govern, The New York Times,weblink 20 August 2021, gathered near the presidential palace in Kabul before it was violently dispersed by the Taliban.WEB, Seir, Ahmad, Faiez, Rahim, Gannon, Kathy, Gambrell, Jon, 19 August 2021, Afghans protest Taliban in emerging challenge to their rule,weblink 19 August 2021, AP News, WEB, 19 August 2021, Afghans display national flag as they mark independence day,weblink 19 August 2021, Al Jazeera, Protests continued in Khost and Asadabad as well, with the Taliban using violence to disperse protests in both. In Asadabad, protests were reported as swelling to the hundreds. The response of the Taliban came as they fired into the crowd, shooting and killing at least two people.WEB, Two reported killed as Taliban fire on crowds protesting takeover,weblink 18 May 2022, Al Jazeera, en, During the months after the fall of Kabul, there have been some protests against Taliban decision-making. On 26 December, hundreds took to the streets of the Anaba District after the Taliban admittedly killed a man in a misunderstanding.NEWS, Lalzoy, Najibullah, 27 December 2021, Hundreds protest in Panjshir over murder of a young man, en-US, The Khaama Press News Agency,weblink 18 May 2022, Openly protesting the Taliban does not come without consequences and over the span of multiple weeks at the beginning of 2022, some activists were possibly detained by the Islamic Emirate. On 12 February, Afghan women protested against the Taliban and demanded the release of the missing female activists.WEB, Protesters Call for Release of Female Activists,weblink 20 May 2022, TOLOnews, en,

Women

{{See also|Treatment of women by the Taliban#Post-2021 takeover}}File:Women in burqa with their children in Herat, Afghanistan.jpg|thumb|Blue Afghan burkas such as these, known locally as chadori,{{Efn|Compare with chador}} were identified by the Taliban as an acceptable type of required hijabhijabThe withdrawal of the US army and most diplomatic international presence has changed the way of life for many Afghan women. At the beginning of September 2021, the focus on a male-dominated society returned, as the new regime appointed only men for the government positions.NEWS, Associated Press, 21 September 2021, Taliban Name Their Deputy Ministers, Doubling Down On An All-Male Team, en, NPR,weblink 18 May 2022, Besides not being represented by their government, the Taliban has also altered the access to education for females. In various parts of the country, girls were taken out of high school and women were barred from universities due to reasons of "capacity".WEB, Taliban says all Afghan girls will be back in school by March,weblink 18 May 2022, Al Jazeera, en, After six months without education for these Afghan women, the Taliban had promised to reopen the schools in March 2022 but retracted their statement, which resulted in a protest.MAGAZINE, Afghan Girls Contemplate a Future Without Schools,weblink 18 May 2022, Time, en, NEWS, Kermani, Secunder, 26 March 2022, Afghanistan: Protesters urge Taliban to reopen girls' schools, en-GB, BBC News,weblink 18 May 2022, Life has changed for Afghan women as their freedom is being restricted; access to education is hindered, possibilities in employment are limited, there is lesser freedom regarding appearance and basic rights are curtailed.JOURNAL, Rushchenko, Julia, February 2022, NATO and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda,weblink NATO Defense College, 1–4, NEWS, Faced with disappearances, beatings and intimidation, Afghanistan's women's rights activists go quiet on the streets, en-US, Washington Post,weblink live, subscription, 18 May 2022,weblink 8 February 2022, 0190-8286,

Mental health

A recent study between August and November 2021 was completed by 214 Afghan students with a majority of 73.7% being female. Accurate studies in crisis areas like Afghanistan are difficult to conduct because it is hard to have a large number of participants and a smaller sample size weakens the results. Despite this, the research presents that 69.7% of participants suffer from depression and 70% from PTSD due to the fall of Kabul and the crisis that came after. Women are affected more than men and the general scores are higher than those of prior studies in Afghanistan.JOURNAL, Naghavi, Azam, Afsharzada, Mohammad Sajjad, Brailovskaia, Julia, Teismann, Tobias, 15 June 2022, Mental health and suicidality in Afghan students after the Taliban takeover in 2021,weblink Journal of Affective Disorders, en, 307, 178–183, 10.1016/j.jad.2022.04.001, 35390352, 247995122, 0165-0327,

Health

Many women in Afghanistan have experienced gender-based violence (GBV) in their lives. Even though it was already in place before the Taliban rule, it has increased since the fall of Kabul. The Taliban have been accused of removing Afghan women from public life, which includes the political, economic and social spheres.WEB, Afghanistan: Taliban attempting to steadily erase women and girls from public life – UN experts,weblink 24 May 2022, OHCHR, en, An example of the increasing restrictions that affect female health is that women are banned from travelling for more than 72 kilometers without the presence of a mahram, a male guardian.NEWS, 27 December 2021, Afghanistan's Taliban ban long-distance road trips for solo women, en-GB, BBC News,weblink 24 May 2022, The geographical reduction of their access to health care in combination with the fact that women cannot be examined by males aggravates the problem.JOURNAL, Saboor, Lamba, Ahmad, Lida, Ahmad, Ayesha, 5 March 2022, The bleak future of Afghan women's health under the Taliban,weblink The Lancet, English, 399, 10328, 893–894, 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00283-5, 0140-6736, 35183298, 246906641, The deteriorating humanitarian and economic situation increases the further risk of GBV as there are fewer help services or ways to escape the violence.

Anniversary

(File:Taliban celebration in Kabul in September 2022.png|thumb|Taliban members celebrating on the anniversary of their victory in Kabul, August 2022)In 2022, 15 August was declared a national holiday by the Taliban upon the one-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul.NEWS, Gul, Ayaz, Taliban Announce Public Holiday in Afghanistan to Mark Retaking of Power,weblink 16 August 2022, Voice of America, 14 August 2022, Islamabad, Pakistan,

See also

{{div col}}

• Battle of Kabul, 1929
• Battle of Kabul (1992–1996)
• Fall of Saigon, Vietnam, 1975
• Fall of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1975
• Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
• 1842 retreat from Kabul
• Kabul International Airport

{{div col end}}

Notes

{{Notelist}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

• {{commons category-inline|Fall of Kabul}}
• EPISODE, America and the Taliban, Frontline, Frontline (American TV program), PBS, WGBH-TV, WGBH, 4 April 2023, 41, 12,weblink 6 October 2023,

{{War in Afghanistan (2001–present)}}{{Afghanistan–United States relations}}{{Taliban}}