Tajikistan's president on Monday ordered the mobilisation of 20,000 military reservists to bolster the border with Afghanistan after more than 1,000 Afghan security personnel fled across the frontier in response to Taliban militant advances.
www.reuters.com
The Taliban plan to present a written peace proposal to the Afghan government side as soon as next month, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgents said even as they make major territorial gains in the breach left by departing foreign forces.
www.reuters.com
its moving faster than i think anyone expected. whole chunks of the north seem to be being given over without a fight, with the afghan army just leaving. predictions from afghanistan pundits are generally pretty dire, but it's hard to know if these are very considered opinons, because all of this is happening so fast. it's not clear at all what the big players who normally control the north are up to (dostum, atta noor), and maybe there is some bigger game going on behind the scenes. but there is genuinely a bit of a fear that the taliban could make it even into places like panjshir now that they've taken badakhshan, which is something i wouldn't have expected to be on the cards as little as three days ago.
maybe they'll lose the momentum. but if it carries on like this it won't be long before they start to take even the major cities. at that point in europe (and pakistan, iran, turkey) we can probably expect a major new wave of refugees. apparently the numbers have already picked up a lot going over into Iran, but as always none of this is properly counted and its never really possible to confirm much of what you hear.
absolutely no idea what to make of that news about the taliban's peace plan. sounds like it might be some kind of bullshit to me, or maybe an attempt from the taliban guys in Doha to take back a bit of control from the military guys in pakistan and afghanistan.