KABUL, Afghanistan – Mornings in the city begin with “sticky bombs”, explosives exploding on cars going up in flames. With nightfall comes the fear of hit-and-run killings in the nearby suburbs – government employees killed by motorcycle-riding insurgents who run free.
As peace talks call for an end to Afghanistan’s prolonged war delays, the Taliban could save Kabul, the capital, from mass casualties as part of a deal with the United States. But the insurgents have instead resorted to a tactic that erodes the Afghan government’s status with each passing day: frequent targeted attacks that the country’s security forces do not seem to control.
The city has taken an air of slow-creeping siege.
At least 17 small explosions and killings were carried out in Kabul last week, according to a report by The New York Times. Three magnetic bombs went off within an hour on Saturday morning, and at least two more attacks followed before the end of the day.
The night before, occupants had killed at least three soldiers in Paghman district, 10 miles west of the city, and another in Qarabagh district, 30 miles north. By the end of the day, Kabul’s police officer had been fired, an official acknowledgment that security efforts were not working.
Mohammed Arif Rahmani, a member of the Afghan parliament’s security committee, said the Taliban had been embedded since it struck an agreement with the United States in February that began with the withdrawal of American troops and largely ended the use of American troops. air force essential for keeping the insurgents at bay.
But with repeated delays in the next steps of the peace process – a cease-fire and direct negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government – the Taliban have switched to smaller-scale operations to see a presence deep in the capital and around it. .
On important occasions, such as the presidential inauguration in March and Independence Day last week, mortar shelters landed in the heart of the city.
“They have since used the time to increase their resources and complete the siege ring around the city,” Mr Rahmani said.
While the Taliban worked to strengthen their hand in the negotiations, Mr Rahmani said he was much more concerned that the Afghan government could not do much in the face of the Taliban’s threats.
Immediate talks were expected in March, according to the deal with the US-Taliban, but the start was delayed by agreements on the exchange of 5,000 Taliban prisoners for 1,000 Afghan security forces. The Afghan government was initially opposed to the plan, saying it had not played a part in the negotiations but agreed to much pressure from the Trump administration.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in early August that the government would release the last 400 prisoners, removing the last obstacle to the talks. The Taliban said they would sit down for immediate negotiations within three days of the release of the last prisoner.
But in the two weeks since, only 80 prisoners have been released. Afghan officials said France and Australia were opposed to the release of several detainees accused of killing their citizens. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan national security adviser, said the remaining prisoners would be released after the Taliban liberated a number of Afghan pilots and commandos.
Meanwhile, the Taliban projected force through brutal violence around the country and increased activity in and around the capital.
Afghan officials acknowledge that the Taliban have little presence in districts around the capital to carry out hit-and-run attacks. Reports of government workers targeting suburbs are an almost daily occurrence.
One Afghan security official said an overlap between criminal networks and the uprising in the city and surrounding districts had created security forces’ jobs. especially troublesome. The cooperation gives the Taliban not only a wide range, but also coverage for explosives in the city. The lack of accurate addresses like identification cards in the capital makes it that much more difficult to pin networks.
The Taliban have long had a quiet presence in the districts south and southeast of Kabul, particularly focused on government funds in Surobi, a district on the main road connecting the capital to the east. But in recent months, they have become more open about their presence, often forcing families to cut ties with the government, pull their sons out of any government service and provide food and money to the insurgents.
“The Taliban go to people and ask them for food, and no one can say no,” said Shinkay Karokhel, a member of parliament with constituencies in Surobi. “When people say they do not have enough food, the Taliban ask them to slaughter and eat their animals.”
The insurgents have also increased their presence in districts north of Kabul, causing many government workers to relocate their families. The Taliban reinforce positions that are only temporarily dismantled by command operations. They return as elitist forces, stretched by spiral violence across the country, to be delivered elsewhere.
Officials and residents of Shakardara, a district about 20 miles north of Kabul, said in interviews that they were appalled at how easily a small group proclaimed to themselves that the Taliban had set up a fort in the district.
One former Afghan army soldier accused of aid work in the south returned home and gathered a band of about 10 men around him. He began threatening his own brothers to leave the army. More insurgents joined the group after carrying out their first major attack: targeting the convoy of the governor of Kabul, who was visiting his garden in the district, and killed one of his bodyguards.
After that attack, hundreds of Afghan commandos carried out a two-day operation in Shakardara, arresting 37 people, according to one local commander. But when the commandos once left the area, the Taliban who withdrew them returned.
Atiqullah Amarkhel, a retired Afghan general who saw the Soviet-backed government fall on a rebel group that was slowly overthrowing Kabul, said what worried him was that the Afghan government was so divided that coalition partners could not seem to agree. , even the leadership of a council intended to oversee talks with the Taliban.
Mr. Amarkhel said that, as in the 1990s, the union of the current government allowed the riots to gain strength.
“I see history repeating itself,” he said.
Fahim Abed contributed reporting.
