海角大神

The shock realization of Afghanistan鈥檚 fall to the Taliban crystallized for Zarghona Alakozai as she raced home Sunday from the law courts in Kabul.

Her ears were ringing with the panicked cries of Afghans that the Taliban had arrived in the capital. On the way she found Afghan police officers begging their superiors to let them strip off their uniforms and give up their guns to the Taliban, so as to save themselves.

The female judge confronted the men, pleading.

鈥淲hy are you surrendering? ... Fight the Taliban!鈥� Ms. Alakozai says she shouted.聽One officer聽replied, adding an apology: 鈥淥ur聽[political]聽leaders are traitors; they don鈥檛 allow us to fight and they fled. We have to surrender. We are sorry, we can鈥檛 defend you.鈥�

The episode 鈥撀爎epeated countless times in recent weeks, as U.S.-trained Afghan security forces collapsed in the face of a Taliban juggernaut, often without a shot being fired 颅鈥� is emblematic of how the 20-year American project to build a functional Afghan state imploded.

Images of bearded, black-turbaned Taliban fighters taking down the Afghan flag yesterday in the abandoned offices of President Ashraf Ghani, hours after he fled the country, illustrate how the arc of Afghanistan鈥檚 history has now come full circle since the U.S. invasion in 2001.

For Afghans, the only certainty is the scale of American defeat amid fears that the archconservative Taliban will reverse two decades of gains in women鈥檚 and human rights, and expectations that had been raised of a more hopeful future.

Now Afghans face living under the self-declared Islamic Emirate imposed by a Taliban that is arguably stronger than it was in the 1990s and can claim a propaganda victory in defeating a superpower.

Since Sunday, the unopposed arrival of the militants in Kabul has prompted panic, with banks, passport, and visa offices overwhelmed, and a mob of thousands at the airport swarming planes to escape, as U.S. troops fired their guns to disperse crowds. Several Afghans died as they fell from the undercarriages of U.S. military evacuation planes during takeoff, videos show.聽聽

Some changes in Kabul were immediately evident Monday. Women were barely seen on the streets, and most shops were closed. Armed Taliban fighters 鈥� many of them teenagers 鈥� patrolled the streets in open-back trucks.

Afternoon prayers at the large Abdul Rahman mosque were packed with hundreds of Taliban fighters, many of whom had slept inside overnight. They included several former inmates 鈥� two of them Islamic State militants 鈥� freshly freed from an Afghan prison at Bagram Airfield.

The newly installed Taliban prayer leader at the mosque praised the jihadis for bringing an Islamic government that he said will ensure a 鈥渧ery peaceful situation.鈥� He called on Afghans to 鈥渉elp our fighters for better security,鈥� and said everyone should come to prayers on time.

鈥淪erve and secure our people鈥�

For months, as U.S. forces began their rapid drawdown, Taliban representatives have attempted a charm offensive on Afghans, including those in Kabul whom they had castigated as infidels for their Westernized ways and cooperation with foreign forces.

In a video statement from Doha, Qatar, where Taliban leaders have held talks with U.S. diplomats that spanned the Trump and Biden administrations, lead negotiator Abdul Ghani Baradar said the group鈥檚 victory was unexpected and that it 鈥渟hould show humility in front of Allah. ... Now it鈥檚 about how we serve and secure our people and ensure their future to the best of our ability.鈥�

But many Afghans won鈥檛 be convinced by a Taliban leadership that has reneged repeatedly on promises after signing a withdrawal agreement in Doha in February 2020 with the Trump administration. Those broken promises include a reduction in violence and commitments not to attack urban centers; the U.S. also extracted a pledge, which the Taliban didn鈥檛 break, not to attack retreating U.S. troops.

On the battlefield, the consistent message to Taliban fighters has been of military victory over foreign invaders and their 鈥減uppets鈥� in Kabul.

鈥淲e will expel foreigners from this Islamic land, including the U.S. and its other occupying partners, including its dissidents,鈥� a Taliban commander in northwestern Faryab province told 海角大神 Friday.

鈥淭he United States will flee with the infidel countries in disgrace,鈥� the commander, known as Mullah Aleem, predicted. There would be no room, either, for Afghans who consider the Taliban terrorists, he said. 鈥淭hey have to either flee and we鈥檒l kill them, or they accept the laws of the Mujahideen,鈥� he said.聽聽

As a female judge for nine years, Ms. Alakozai had received frequent Taliban death threats because of her gender and her official role. Before Sunday鈥檚 takeover, she hadn鈥檛 slept for three nights, haunted by the possibility of the Taliban return 鈥� and fear that she would be killed and her 5-month-old daughter would become an orphan.

鈥淎ll the residents of Kabul are scared and live a few steps away from death,鈥� says Ms. Alakozai. 鈥淲e really feel like we are dying because once I lived under the Taliban. ... What will my life be like now?鈥�

The Taliban have spoken of giving 鈥渁mnesty鈥� to members of the government or Afghans who have helped foreign security forces. But this rings hollow after several months of targeted killings of officials, civil society activists, and journalists that have raised fears of a bloody purge.

Before taking Kabul, the Taliban had captured more than half of Afghanistan鈥檚 provincial capitals over the past week alone 鈥� from Kandahar in the south to Mazar-e-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east. This strategy isolated the Afghan capital and made its surrender seem inevitable.

In city after city, Taliban insurgents used a combination of threats and political inducements to convince local leaders to surrender and Afghan National Army (ANA) and police forces to lay down their arms. By capturing stocks of weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and other supplies, the Taliban accelerated their advance on Kabul, according to phone interviews with Afghan commanders and officials in contested areas.

In Kandahar, for example, one Afghan paramilitary commander recalled an intense battle last week on the city鈥檚 outskirts near the compound of former Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

鈥淪uddenly they [the Taliban] were at our front door. It was almost hand-to-hand fighting,鈥� he said, requesting anonymity due to security concerns.

Then he received an unexpected phone call from the governor of Kandahar province, who ordered him to stop fighting. At first, he refused to comply. But without the possibility of resupply of ammunition, food, and water, he eventually negotiated his retreat before Kandahar, Afghanistan鈥檚 second largest city, fell Thursday.

Leniency for captured troops

In recent weeks the Taliban have made public displays of leniency toward captured ANA soldiers, says one Afghan official in the eastern province of Konar.

鈥淭hey put flowers on their heads and give them clothes and money and let them go home,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o everyone thinks, 鈥業f I fight, I鈥檓 going to die. But if I don鈥檛 fight, they鈥檙e not going to kill me,鈥欌�� says the official, who asked not to be named for his safety. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why the ANA ... is letting everything go.鈥�

In Jalalabad, a major trading hub on Afghanistan鈥檚 border with Pakistan, a swift surrender unfolded Sunday when the provincial governor allowed the Taliban to take over the city in return for sparing it from destruction.聽

鈥淚 am happy that the Taliban were given power in Nangarhar to prevent theft and peacefully enter the ... districts without bloodshed,鈥� tweeted Gov. Ziaulhaq Amarkhil, hours after the Taliban shadow governor for the province of Nangarhar took control.

Yet while many Afghan political leaders, from the president on down, have chosen capitulation, the question of how the Taliban will treat ordinary citizens looms large.

When the Taliban ruled in the 1990s, men were forced to pray five times a day and to grow their beards long. Similar measures, including forbidding smartphones and television, and closing and burning schools for girls, are already being instilled in parts of Afghanistan now under Taliban control.

鈥淲hen the Taliban start taking these places, people don鈥檛 want to support them. But in fear, they don鈥檛 have any other option because they [Taliban] are terrorists,鈥� said the Afghan official in Konar province. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 have any mercy.鈥�

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled the advancing Taliban, many seeking refuge in Kabul before it fell on Sunday. Others are desperately looking for ways to leave the country, knowing that the Taliban control the main highways and border crossings, making road travel increasingly precarious.

As options to leave are dwindling, some Afghans are going into hiding locally. In Jalalabad, for example, one large family bought a two-month supply of food, divided into groups, left their house, and scattered into the city to hide. A relative in the U.S. says the family fears Taliban retribution because some of its members served as interpreters for the U.S. military.

鈥淭hey are afraid,鈥� the relative says. 鈥淢any are young 鈥� in their 20s and teens 鈥� and they鈥檝e never seen anything like this.鈥�

Staff writers Scott Peterson and Ann Scott Tyson reported from Seattle.聽