US general warns of Afghan civil war as security worsens

KABUL • The commander of the US-led mission in Afghanistan warned that the country could be on a path to chaotic civil war as American and other international troops prepare to leave in the coming weeks.

His assessment, in a rare news conference at the headquarters of the US and Nato command in Kabul, will likely be one of the last publicly delivered by an American four-star general in Afghanistan.

Recent events there included a Taleban offensive seizing around 100 district centres and wounding or killing dozens of civilians, while displacing thousands more.

"Civil war is certainly a path that can be visualised if it continues on the trajectory it's on," General Austin Miller told reporters on Tuesday. "That should be a concern for the world."

Speaking from a garden adjacent to the circle of flagpoles that once displayed the flags of the 36 countries that contributed to the US-led Nato mission - now reduced to Turkey, Britain and the United States - Gen Miller said the troop withdrawal was reaching a point where he would soon end his command, which began in September 2018.

"From a military standpoint, it's going very well," he said of the US withdrawal. He did not offer a timeline for when it will be completed.

The Taleban, for the most part, have not attacked departing US or international forces, instead focusing the brunt of the violence on Afghan security forces and civilians caught in the crossfire.

Germany completed its troop pullout from Afghanistan on Tuesday, its Defence Ministry announced, while the US aims to completely withdraw by Sept 11.

On Twitter, German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer offered her thanks to all the 150,000 men and women who had served there since 2001. She also paid tribute to those killed and wounded in service there, estimated to be around 59 German soldiers since 2001.

What US forces remain are spread between Kabul and Bagram Air Base, the sprawling base once home to thousands of troops. Bagram is now the final gateway for moving out what troops and equipment remain in the country.

The Nato headquarters, soon to become part of the US Embassy compound, was quiet on Tuesday.

The Georgian guards who manned its perimeter were gone, replaced by US Embassy security. The interior, a web of protective cement barriers, barracks and offices, felt like an empty home.

Roughly 650 US troops are expected to remain in the country to provide security for diplomats, officials said last week.

The US military is still providing what support it can to Afghan security forces, flying jets from the aircraft carriers Eisenhower and Reagan to drop air strikes on Taleban fighters.

US air strikes, targeting groups of Taleban fighters after their recent offensive in the country's north, have drawn outrage from the Taleban but little else as their fighters continue to take territory daily.

The insurgent group has taken dozens of districts in past weeks. Afghan forces have managed to retake several districts, but nothing on the scale of their insurgent foes.

"What we're seeing is the rapid loss of district centres," Gen Miller said, adding that he had passed his advice - to pull security forces back to defend key areas such as big cities - on to Afghan leaders.

This domino effect of falling districts has demoralised Afghan security forces, who have watched their comrades surrender en masse, forfeiting their vehicles and equipment to the Taleban.

To bolster depleted government forces, militias - some long on the government's payroll - have gained new prominence. Both President Ashraf Ghani and his newly appointed defence minister have made comments that seemed to welcome the resurgence of such groups.

Mr Abdullah Abdullah, the top Afghan official leading continuing peace talks in Qatar, along with Mr Ghani, visited Washington last week to meet President Joe Biden and lawmakers, with their country's future anything but certain.

The Biden administration has pledged to support Mr Ghani. That includes US$266 million (S$357 million) in humanitarian aid and US$3.3 billion in security assistance, as well as three million doses of coronavirus vaccines.

Still, Mr Biden's message in his meetings with the Afghan leaders was clear: The US military was leaving.

NYTIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE