Wheel of history turns full circle as Afghanistan falls to the Taliban 

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Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021 after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. (AP Photo/Zabi Karimi)
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Updated 17 August 2021
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Wheel of history turns full circle as Afghanistan falls to the Taliban 

  • Departure of President Ghani following the Taliban’s entry into Kabul marks the end of government’s resistance
  • Now that they have the upper hand, Taliban leaders are expected to decide what the next government will look like

DUBAI: After being denied a share of power for almost 20 years, the Taliban has regained its political footing in one fell swoop, dislodging the government from the few provinces over which it held sway before entering the capital Kabul.

On Sunday, its fighters claimed they had seized the key city of Jalalabad in the east and the adjacent areas of Laghman and Maidan Wardak, about 20 km to the west of Kabul. The last pockets of resistance in Mazar-i-Sharif had been crushed by the Taliban the previous night. By dusk on Sunday, the hardline Islamist group had more areas under its control than ever before.

With the latest sweep, which followed on the heels of a surge in attacks, the Taliban controls all key border crossings of Afghanistan with neighboring countries. Besides Kabul, they have captured all major cities and most of the airports.




Afghan families, who fled from Kunduz and Takhar province due to battles between Taliban and Afghan security forces, sit at the Shahr-e-Naw Park in Kabul on August 10, 2021. (AFP)

Middle-class, educated Afghans have been gripped by a mix of feelings — uncertainty, panic, terror, pessimism and even optimism — as the US prepares to abandon the country to its once and future rulers. Older Afghans have bitter memories of the Taliban’s puritanical policies during its rule from 1996 to 2001.

The group’s promises of a new era of peace have yet to be tested. Zabihullah Mujahid, its spokesman, said the group ordered its fighters to enter Kabul on Sunday to prevent looting as policemen had left their posts empty. “The Mujahidden of the Islamic Emirate has no intention of entering Kabul by force or war, but is holding talks with the other side for a peaceful entrance to Kabul,” he said.

He did not explain who the “other side was” but assured Afghans that “life, honor and property of people will be protected” before ordering the Taliban to “remain at the gates of Kabul and avoid revenge.”

Abdul Sattar Mirzakawal, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister, said in a video message that talks were underway on the formation of a transitional government.

“The people of Kabul should not worry, the city is secure. Whoever causes disorder will be dealt with decisively. The security of the city is guaranteed, the city will not be attacked … and the deal is to transfer power peacefully to the leadership of a transitional administration. Kabul is safe, be assured,” Mirzakawa said in a recorded speech.

Since the Taliban now have the upper hand, they are expected to decide what the next government will look like. Two Taliban officials told Reuters news agency there would be no transitional government and that the group expected a complete handover of power.




Abdullah Abdullah (center, front), head of Afghanistan's high Council for National Reconciliation, walks down a hotel lobby during the talks in Qatar's capital Doha on August 12, 2021. (AFP)

Earlier on Sunday, Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, announced that President Ashraf Ghani left the country as the Taliban circled the outskirts of Kabul.

“The former Afghan president has left the nation,” AFP quoted Abdullah as saying.

While an eventual takeover of the country by the Taliban was widely expected, what caught everyone by surprise was the speed of the government’s capitulation. Without the military support of the US and NATO, senior officials of the Afghan Armed Forces evidently reckoned they were fighting a losing battle.

“People think like other parts of the country, the Taliban will take Kabul too because morale is low among troops, people are tired of war and the soldiers are not willing to sacrifice their lives for the corrupt leaders of Kabul,” retired Col. Mohammad Hassan, a security analyst, told Arab News.




Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani was forced to flee Kabul as Taliban forces captured the capital on August 15, 2021. (AFP)

On Saturday, a defiant President Joe Biden released a statement defending and explaining the withdrawal from Afghanistan. “An endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” he said.

Speaking to reporters at the White House days before that, he said the US was keeping the commitments it had made to Afghanistan, such as providing close air support, paying military salaries and supplying Afghan forces with food and equipment.

“They’ve got to fight for themselves,” Biden said.

However, the haste with which US forces pulled out was viewed by politicians and ordinary people as an insult to the country, especially after the sacrifices both Americans and Afghans had made in blood and treasure for two decades.




A US CH-46 Sea Knight military transport helicopter flies over Kabul on August 15, 2021 to evacuate US embassy staff. (REUTERS/Stringer)

A wartime Afghan interpreter who worked for Washington told the BBC the US “turned its back” on him. The man, whose name was changed for security reasons, said: “The president of the US said, ‘as you stood with us, we will stand with you.’ So right now, where are they? There’s no mercy for the linguists. The Taliban has said before, interpreters were the eyes and ears of the Americans — so the punishment will be different for us.”

He said although his services had saved numerous American lives, his application for a US visa in 2016 was rejected due to “lack of faithful and valuable service.”

The sense of betrayal and abandonment is not confined to people who served the coalition forces. Abdul Bostani, who left Afghanistan as a teenager to flee from the Taliban, said the world has turned its back on the Afghans.

“The international community … promised (the) people of Afghanistan a safe and secure country 20 years ago, but we’ve been let down and this will have serious consequences to the rest of the world,” he said.




Residents of Kabul celebrate and escort Northern Alliance fighters entering the Afghan capital Kabul, Afghanistan, on November 13, 2001. (REUTERS/File Photo) 

In recent days, social media posts showed citizens and residents of Kabul lining up outside banks, foreign embassies and in visa processing offices in an attempt to flee the country before the Taliban closed in.

Nepal appealed for the evacuation of an estimated 1,500 citizens working as security staff with embassies and aid groups in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Western countries ramped up efforts to evacuate their representatives from the country. The US Embassy in Kabul sent a security alert on Sunday warning that the situation in the capital, including at the airport, was unstable.




Members of the 16 Air Assault Brigade arrive in Kabul as part of a 600-strong UK-force sent to assist the rescue of British nationals in Afghanistan. (MoD via AP)

“There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing US citizens to shelter in place,” the embassy said.

Madeleine Albright, who served as the first female US secretary of state from 1997 to 2001, said saving lives has to take priority.

“We must focus on saving lives in Afghanistan. As the US works to evacuate those at special risk from the Taliban, I am grateful to Albania, Canada, Kosovo and North Macedonia for offering refuge to Afghan allies, esp women & civil society leaders. I hope & expect others to follow,” Albright said on Twitter.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani Nobel laureate who was shot by a Taliban gunman in 2012, echoed Albright’s concerns. “We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. I am deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates. Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians,” she said.

Some regional powers, it seems, have reached a modus vivendi with the Taliban. China has received a Taliban delegation. Uzbekistan, Iran, Russia and Pakistan have welcomed the Taliban’s return to Kabul in what they referred to as a peaceful manner, and willingness to share power with other political actors.

The Biden administration believes that its concerns in Afghanistan have been addressed to the extent that Taliban leaders have pledged not to allow any militant group to use Afghan territory against Washington or any other country in the world.

The US presumably believes it has achieved its goals and will be able to deal with any future government in Kabul that does not threaten its interests, even if it does not comply with international conventions on human rights any more than the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and Iran do.


UK’s Starmer, under pressure from Farage, tightens migration rules

Updated 8 sec ago
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UK’s Starmer, under pressure from Farage, tightens migration rules

LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a new salvo of measures to toughen up Britain’s migration system on Sunday, saying many immigrants would have to wait longer before getting the status they need to claim welfare.
Starmer’s government — which is due to publish plans for new legislation to reduce immigration on Monday — is under pressure to counter the rise in popularity of Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party.
Over the weekend, interior minister Yvette Cooper announced plans to restrict skilled worker visas to graduate-level applicants, prevent care sector firms from recruiting abroad and require businesses to increase training for local workers.
“Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,” Starmer said in a statement. “Enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall.”
Under the changes, automatic settlement and citizenship for people who move to Britain will apply after 10 years, up from five years now, although highly skilled workers — such as nurses, doctors, engineers and AI experts — would be fast-tracked.
Migrants who are in the UK on visas are typically ineligible for welfare benefits and social housing.
The government also said it plans to raise English language requirements to include all adult dependents who will have to show a basic understanding of English. It said the change would help integration and reduce the risks of exploitation.
“This is a clean break from the past and will ensure settlement in this country is a privilege that must be earned, not a right,” Starmer said.
“And when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration and to learning our language,” he said.
The number of European Union migrants to Britain fell sharply after Brexit but new visa rules, a rise in people arriving from Ukraine and Hong Kong and higher net numbers of foreign students led to an overall surge in recent years.
Net migration — the number of people coming to Britain minus the number leaving — hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, up from 184,000 who arrived in the same period during 2019, when Britain was still in the EU.
Employers’ groups are worried that tightening the rules on foreign workers will make it harder for companies to fill vacancies.
“This major intervention in the labor market will leave many employers fearful that in tackling concerns about immigration, government goes after the wrong target,” Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), said.
Being open to skilled workers was essential for Britain “but so is a controlled, affordable and responsive immigration system that keeps investment flowing to the UK,” Carberry said.


Poland accuses Russia of ordering major fire in Warsaw last year

Updated 11 May 2025
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Poland accuses Russia of ordering major fire in Warsaw last year

  • The fire in May 2024 has completely destroyed a large shopping center in the capital of Warsaw

WARSAW: Polish authorities accused Russian intelligence services on Sunday of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a large shopping center last year in the capital of Warsaw.
Since Russia’s February 2022 offensive against Ukraine, Poland — a loyal ally of Kyiv — claims to be the target of sabotage attempts which they blame on Russia.
In May 2024, a fire completely destroyed a large shopping center in Warsaw and the 1,400 small businesses it housed, most of them owned by members of the Vietnamese community.
Authorities immediately launched an investigation but had until now refrained from blaming Moscow.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping center in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on X.
The justice and interior ministries said in a separate, joint statement Sunday that some of the alleged perpetrators were already in custody, while others had been identified but still at large.
“Their actions were organized and directed by a specific person residing in the Russian Federation,” the two ministries said, adding that they were cooperating with Lithuania, “where some of the perpetrators also carried out acts of diversion.”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland has detained and convicted several individuals suspected of sabotage on behalf of Russian intelligence services, accused of assaults, arson or attempted arson.
In May 2024, Poland imposed restrictions on the movements of Russian diplomats on its soil, due to Moscow’s “involvement” in a “hybrid war.”
Five months later, Warsaw ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Poznan, in western Poland, accusing Moscow of orchestrating “sabotage attempts.”
In December, Polish diplomacy said it was willing to close all Russian consulates in Poland if acts of “terrorism” continued.
Russia closed in January the Polish consulate in Saint Petersburg in retaliation.
Bordering Ukraine, Poland — a NATO and European Union member — is one of the main countries through which Western nations supply weapons and ammunition to Kyiv to help Ukraine fight Russian troops.


First white South Africans board plane for US under Trump refugee plan

Updated 11 May 2025
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First white South Africans board plane for US under Trump refugee plan

  • Trump’s offer of asylum to white South Africans coincides with heightened racial tensions over land and jobs
  • Trump said descendants of mostly Dutch early settlers, the Afrikaners, were 'victims of unjust racial discrimination'

The first white South Africans granted refugee status under a program initiated by US President Donald Trump boarded a plane to leave from the country’s main international airport in Johannesburg on Sunday.
A queue of white citizens with airport trolleys full of luggage, much of it wrapped in theft-proof cellophane, waited to have their passports stamped, a Reuters reporter saw, before they entered the departure lounge for their charter flight.
“One of the conditions of the permit was to ensure that they were vetted in case one of them has a criminal issue pending,” South African transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi told Reuters, adding that 49 passengers had been cleared.
Journalists were not granted access to those headed to the US Msibi said they were due to fly to Dulles Airport just outside Washington, D.C., and then on to Texas. They had boarded the plane but not yet left as 18:30 GMT.
Trump’s offer of asylum to white South Africans, especially Afrikaners — the group with the longest history in South Africa and who make up the bulk of whites — has been divisive in both countries. In the United States, it comes as the Trump administration has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world. In South Africa, it coincides with heightened racial tensions over land and jobs that have dogged domestic politics since the end of white minority rule.
Despite a wider freeze on refugees, Trump called on the US to prioritize resettling Afrikaners, descendants of mostly Dutch early settlers, saying they were “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”
The granting of refugee status to white South Africans — who have remained by far the most privileged race since apartheid ended 30 years ago — has been met with a mixture of alarm and ridicule by South African authorities, who say the Trump administration has waded into a domestic political issue it does not understand.
Three decades since Nelson Mandela ushered democracy into South Africa, the white minority that ruled it has managed to retain most of the wealth that was amassed under colonialism and apartheid. Whites still own three quarters of private land and about 20 times the wealth of the Black majority, according to the Review of Political Economy, an international academic journal. Whites are also the race least affected by joblessness. Yet the claim that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the Black majority has been repeated so often in online chatrooms that is has become orthodoxy for the far right, and has been echoed by Trump’s white South African-born ally Elon Musk.


At least three die, including two children, in Libya-Italy crossing

Updated 11 May 2025
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At least three die, including two children, in Libya-Italy crossing

  • The migrants were intercepted on Saturday on a rubber boat floating adrift south of the Italian island of Lampedusa that had been spotted by a surveillance aircraft of the EU border agency Frontex

ROME: At least three people have died, including two children aged 3 and 4, in a Mediterranean sea crossing from Libya to Italy, a German sea rescue charity said on Sunday, adding that it had rescued 59 survivors.

The migrants were intercepted on Saturday on a rubber boat floating adrift south of the Italian island of Lampedusa that had been spotted by a surveillance aircraft of the EU border agency Frontex.

“By the time (we) reached the rubber boat at around 4.30pm (1430 GMT), it was too late to help some of the people,” the RESQSHIP charity said in a statement.

“Two bodies of infants aged 3 and 4 were handed over to us,” the charity quoted one of its paramedics identified only as Rania as saying. “They had died the day before, probably of thirst.”

A man was found unconscious and declared dead after attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful, RESQSHIP said, adding that it was told by survivors that another migrant had drowned on Friday after going overboard.

Many of the survivors, who were taken to Lampedusa, suffered chemical burns from salt water and fuel, the group said. Two children and four adults in critical condition were handed over to the Italian coast guard to be brought ashore more quickly.

The rubber boat had set off from the port of Zawiya in western Libya on Wednesday, but its engine failed after one day of navigation, leaving the migrants on board exposed to wind and weather, the NGO said.

Lampedusa lies between Tunisia, Malta and the larger Italian island of Sicily and is the first port of call for many migrants seeking to reach the EU from North Africa, in what has become one of the world’s deadliest sea crossings.

Almost 25,000 migrants have died or gone missing on this central Mediterranean route since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration, including around 1,700 last year and 378 so far this year.


Passenger bus skids off a cliff in Sri Lanka, killing 21

Updated 11 May 2025
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Passenger bus skids off a cliff in Sri Lanka, killing 21

  • Deadly bus accidents are common in Sri Lanka, especially in the mountainous regions

COLOMBO: A passenger bus skidded off a cliff in Sri Lanka’s tea-growing hill country on Sunday, killing 21 people and injuring at least 14 others, an official said.

The accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday near the town of Kotmale, about 140 kilometers (86 miles) east of Colombo, the capital, in a mountainous area of central Sri Lanka, police said.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Highways Prasanna Gunasena told the media that 21 people died in the accident and 14 others are being treated in hospitals.

Local television showed the bus lying overturned at the bottom of a precipice while workers and others helped remove injured people from the rubble.

The driver was injured and among those admitted to the hospital for treatment. At the time of the accident, nearly 50 people were traveling on the bus.

The bus was operated by a state-run bus company, police said.

Deadly bus accidents are common in Sri Lanka, especially in the mountainous regions, often due to reckless driving and poorly maintained and narrow roads.