The Taliban’s first attempt to capture Afghanistan’s third-largest city Herat was stymied by the government forces supported by US airstrikes. The Afghan government has announced the strategy of denying provincial capitals and population centers to the Taliban. President Ashraf Ghani stated that the tide will turn against the hardline Islamist militia in six months.

But contrary to Ghani’s claims, the Taliban on August 6 succeeded in capturing the strategic southern city of Zaranj, capital of Nimroz province bordering Iran. The under-construction Chabahar-Zaranj rail line is to open the logistic route between Iran and Afghanistan. According to the Afghan government, the Taliban's provincial authorities in Zaranj were allowed to flee into Iran with their families. Less than 24 hours later, the Taliban scored another victory, by taking Sheberghan, capital of the northern Jowzjan province.
 
When the Taliban captured part of Spin Boldak - a border town and headquarters of Spin Boldak district in the southern Kandahar province - last month, the Pakistan air force warned against any move to evict the Sunni militia. But the Afghan forces managed to throw them out with US air support. However, the Taliban recaptured Spin Boldak on August 6, taking control of the Spin Boldak-Chaman crossing on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and have demanded visa-free movement across the border. President Ghani has accused Pakistan of sending 10,000 jihadis (those waging a holy war on behalf of Islam by considering it as a religious duty) into Afghanistan to back the Taliban.
 
On August 6, Taliban militants shot dead Dawa Khan Menapal, who headed the government’s information and media center in Kabul, while he was traveling in his car. Three days before Menapal’s killing, the Taliban made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Afghanistan’s defense minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi by triggering a car bomb. In the coming days, the militants could engage in more targeted killings of Afghan government officials and supporters, as also those of the US.

Apart from the targeted killings and murderous attempts, chilling video clips of Taliban fighters openly picking up young girls in the presence of their families bring out the misery of the ordinary Afghans. Widespread violence and butchery is part of the Taliban strategy to terrorize the population and cow down resistance.
 
Established Pakistani hand

Afghanistan’s irony is that it is not only Pakistani regulars and Pakistan-based terrorists that are supporting the Taliban. Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Ghulam M Isaczai told the United Nations Security Council that more than 10,000 foreign fighters are in the country, representing 20 groups including Al-Qaeda and ISIL. He informed the council of mounting evidence that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which have pledged allegiance to ISIL, fought alongside the Taliban in Faryab, Jowzjan, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces where they are currently present with their families under Taliban control.  
 
Isaczai also told the UNSC that the Taliban continue to enjoy haven in Pakistan, which is providing supplies and logistics support to the militant group. He also cited video clips to allege that the injured Taliban fighters are being treated in Pakistani hospitals and dead bodies of the militants are being taken for burial in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s support to the Taliban was well known even before the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Recently Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told the US media that the Taliban are "normal civilians". Isaczai informed the UNSC that the war in Afghanistan has entered a deadlier and more destructive phase with more than 1,000 civilians killed in the past month. He urged the UNSC to act to prevent a catastrophic situation. But what action can the UNSC take beyond asking the Taliban to halt their offensive?

Taliban’s duplicity 

Deborah Lyons, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has stated, “A party that was genuinely committed to a negotiated settlement would not risk so many civilian casualties, because it would understand that the process of reconciliation will be more challenging the more blood is shed.”

US Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Richard Mills, urged the Taliban to halt their offensive, pursue a political settlement and protect Afghanistan’s infrastructure and people.  

The Taliban must be laughing all the way home and wondering how the Americans and foreigners who fought the militants for over two decades failed to recognize that the group is not interested in any form of reconciliation. They are only eager to rule Afghanistan; they detest democracy and want to establish an Emirate; they don’t believe in Afghanistan’s Constitution,  want the rule of Sharia.

The Taliban have forced the US to seek their friendship to ensure a safe exit for its troops and officials. The Taliban believe the US took the route out of a realization that the militants could hit them hard. With the US out of the way, the Taliban will now go all out to spread their ideology in conjunction with other hardcore terrorist organizations and exact revenge on all those who fought against them.

The US may continue to bomb the Taliban and keep asking them to reconcile but such a scenario is not going to unfold, especially when nothing has been done in 20 years to block the financial support and arms supplies to the Taliban. Ironically, the misery of the  common Afghan people looks unending - and may just get worse.  

(The writer is an Indian Army veteran. The views expressed are personal.)