-Russia warns of civil war in Afghanistan after withdrawal of Forces
DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: The US military is closely watching the security situation in Afghanistan after fresh gains by the Taliban against government forces as the Pentagon withdraws, top officials said.
Speaking in Congress, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said 81 of 419 district centers had come under the control of the insurgents. While the Taliban say they have added dozens of districts in the past two months alone, Milley said 60 of those had been captured last year before the United States began its final pullout.
He noted that the Taliban fighters had not captured a single provincial capital.
In the same hearing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made clear that the Taliban´s gains were not interfering with the final withdrawal of US troops after nearly two decades. The pullout is already more than half-done and is to be completed by September. “We are focused, and the task that we have at hand is to conduct our retrograde in a safe, orderly and responsible fashion,” Austin told the panel.
“We´ve developed a very detailed plan to do that. And we have accomplished the task according to plan thus far, and really provided for the safety of not only our forces but our allies as well,” he said. Besides, Russian Defence Sergey Shoygu has warned of a civil war in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops.
Speaking at the ninth Moscow Conference on International Security, Shoygu stressed upon the key role of Islamabad and Tehran to keep the Afghan groups united. The Russian minister asked the neighbouring countries and international organisation to address the deteriorating situation of the country. The violence in the war-torn country has increased after the start of withdrawal of foreign troops, with several leaders, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, urging international efforts to tackle the situation.
PM Khan, in an interview with Axios, had asked the US for a political settlement before leaving Afghanistan. In his address at the international security conference, the Russian defence minister called for utilizing the capabilities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. He said that the security of military activity and mechanisms to avoid incidents in Asia should be discussed on multilateral forums of interaction among defense agencies of Asia-Pacific countries.
“We believe it will be useful to discuss matters of security of military activity and the development of mechanisms to exclude incidents in Asia on multilateral interaction formats of defense authorities of Asia-Pacific Region’s countries,” Shoygu said.
