The Daily - The Fall of Afghanistan

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

This episode contains strong language. On Sunday, the president of Afghanistan fled the country; the Taliban seized control of Kabul, the capital; and the American-backed government collapsed.One outspoken critic of the Taliban — a 33-year-old Kabul resident who asked that we refer to her by the initial R for fear of retaliation — shared her experiences as the insurgents closed in.Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Background reading: Kabul fell to the Taliban far faster than many had imagined it would, leaving most Afghans with no way out.The Afghan military was built over 20 years. How did it collapse so quickly?For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. On Sunday, the president of Afghanistan fled the country. The Taliban seized control of the country's capital, and the American-backed government there collapsed. In Kabul, chaos gripped the city as tens of thousands of people went into hiding or tried to escape. Among them is a 33-year-old woman, an outspoken critic of the Taliban, who asked that we refer to her by the initial R for fear of retaliation.

by the initial R for fear of retaliation. In the days leading up to the fall of Kamal, R packed her entire life into six suitcases and started searching for a way out. Since Friday night, she's been sharing her experience and fears with my colleague, Lindsay Garrison, as the Taliban closed in. It's Monday, August 16th.

hey r i know you are incredibly busy but um i was thinking that maybe you could record some voice memos and send them to me over the next few days um anything that you're seeing anything that you're thinking if your situation changes if you're able to get out of the country you can just record anything like that and send it to me and i hope you're doing okay as okay as anyone can be in this kind of circumstance stance. Today, we just, a couple of hours ago, we learned that Logar collapsed, which is 70 kilometers away from Kabul, which is so scary because now they are just very, very close to Kabul. And so there is no way for my family and I to leave, but with the help of some friends, we managed to find a safer place for tonight. So I'm moving with my whole family there and we'll stay there tonight and we'll see what

will happen because some people say that there might be fighting tonight. They might start attacking Kabul tonight or tomorrow. So I have been just moving houses. I'm just like on the way, taking my suitcases, packing up, moving from one place to the other. And yeah, it's just so overwhelming, so exhausting and scary. I don't know what to do. I really don't know what's going to happen.

Good morning. It's a late Friday night here. And I think pretty early, your Saturday morning, I just wanted to see if anything ended up happening last night and where you are. It's early morning and gladly nothing happened last night. So my sister and I, we moved to this house, and my mom and my brothers will join us today. So right now we are just trying to find a way that at least all of us can be together.

But we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. We are just very hopeful and trying to be optimistic. And we just received messages that the Taliban are about to attack Kabul within 72 hours. And I don't know, they have been confirmed by official sources. But I really don't know what is the plan for the Americans and for the British, because they already brought some troops and they are bringing more troops today to evacuate their stuff and some Afghans.

I don't know. I just don't have a good feeling today. I think we just don't have much time. But I don't know. I'm just praying that we will be out soon. I just walked to the main road and, you know, the roads are busy, people are walking around and they're doing their business. It looks like a normal day, but the thing is, I think maybe they have no clue that Kabul can fall any minute or any hour or any day. I was told that they might attack Kabul today. So it's better if I stay in this area so I don't get stuck somewhere.

And also, I was told that the commercial flights might stop tomorrow. I don't know if it's true or false. I'm waiting for the Canadians to tell me if I'm eligible, if they can put me on this list. The Americans say that there's no guarantee, but they might be able to put us on the list and evacuate us, but they may not. So we are also like, we are still trying to find like, you know, ways out for myself and for my family members. Yeah, these are the latest updates that I have. The Taliban are advancing relentlessly across Afghanistan as the U.S. carries out the final stages of withdrawing all its troops.

With international forces largely gone, the Islamist group is taking more territory from a demoralized Afghan military. Taliban tweeted out this video of its fighters celebrating on top of an armored Humvee as it drove through the streets. Vehicles they captured from U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan forces. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani spoke publicly today for the first time in days. He's vowing to keep fighting. In a speech to his nation, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani this morning vowed not to give up over what he called the achievements over the past 20 years. And as this has been happening, tens of thousands of people continue to flood into Kabul. And many of them have come with nothing because they've come from cities that have been centers of fighting. I'm just curious, what's the mood like in Kabul right now?

Is it quiet? Are people scared? Is it chaotic? I'm just curious what the city actually feels like right now i'm driving through the city and um i see fear in people's faces and uh people are rushing everywhere and and I saw hundreds of people lining up behind the banks to withdraw their monies and close their accounts, probably. And we just heard about this announcement that President Ghani is going to resign, even though he didn't mention it in his statement, but it seems that he will resign soon. That is what I heard from my sources. Now everything is just even more complicated and even more complicated because and even more unpredictable i don't know i don't know what's

gonna happen anytime soon but um it's just terrifying and uh worrying i don't know it's been so tragic that i have been just carrying my suitcases from one place to the other hand without even knowing that like if I would ever get out with them. But I'm just carrying them from here to there hoping that I will find that exit way. We'll be right back. We're getting new developments from Afghanistan where the situation is changing there minute by minute. Tonight, the Afghan army is trying to hold back the Taliban in the north's biggest city, Mazar-e-Sharif. On Saturday, the Taliban captured the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif. On Saturday, the Taliban captured the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif after security forces fled to neighboring Uzbekistan, allowing the insurgents to march in unopposed. Another Afghan provincial capital just south

of Kabul has fallen to the Taliban. Taliban fighters have captured the city of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. It was one of two remaining government strongholds and really just a few hours' drive away from the capital, Kabul. I don't know if you're aware of this, but... Two major cities just collapsed. Two major cities just collapsed. And it's so devastating to see that my country is just falling on her knees and no one is just watching us how. I just can't sleep. I'm like, if I sleep, I'm going to miss something.

So I'm just trying to stay awake all night, having my family with me and just checking on my friends and just trying to see what I can do for them, what I can do for my family. And honestly, I feel embarrassed and I feel ashamed on behalf of the world, on behalf of the countries that claim that they are human rights defenders, women's rights defenders, and they are here to establish democracy and freedom of speech,

women's rights, and all these bullshits. And now they've just decided to just leave and let us die. To the world, it's just a city that collapses. But to me, it's not just a city. Because I know with every city, there are thousands of souls that collapse. There are thousands of millions of dreams that collapse. There are our history, our culture, our art, our beauty, our life that collapse. And that is why every time I hear that

a city collapses I collapse again and again and I don't know what's what is next and how they are close to Kabul and when they are gonna take over Kabul.

But I just keep telling myself I have to stay alive. I have to be strong because I need to document all these things. I need to record everything. And I need to do something because I don't want this to be forgotten. It's so painful. So devastating. It's back-breaking. And I feel so miserable because I feel so hopeless and powerless because I cannot do anything.

I wish I could do magic. I wish I could do something that this country would grow wings to just fly away from all this bloodshed and just save her children. I don't know if I could grow or expand my arms to just hold this country and its people and just protect them. It's so devastating and it's so unfair. But what I know, the history will not forget it. The history will remember every name, every face that was involved in creating this bloodshed and misforrest.

NBC News has confirmed that the president, President Ghani of Afghanistan, has left the country. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan has left the country. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's departure signals the government has all but handed power to the Taliban. The question now is what happens next? We are back now with our rolling coverage of the situation in Afghanistan. The Taliban are saying they have ordered their fighters to enter the capital city of Kabul. There are images online coming out right now inside Kabul, the presidential palace overrun by the Taliban.

Bagram Air Base, where there were more than 5,000 prisoners held, among them not only Taliban insurgents, but also al-Qaeda fighters. They've released prisoners, thousands of them. Five to seven thousand of the most hardened Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. Certainly a concern to the civilian population in Kabul and across Afghanistan, who will see very quickly the Taliban reinforce their ranks, and then ultimately, as the group has made clear, reinforce Sharia law across the country. Hi, Lindsay. Hi, Lindsay. It's been such a long, exhausting, terrifying day.

So much happened just in one day. My brain still cannot process this whole thing because earlier this morning, all the roads were fully packed. And just in a matter of like half an hour, all the roads were empty. There were gunfire and then people were just rushing, running on the streets to find some where to hide some where. to find some beer, to hide some beer.

And, yeah, it's just... I just can't believe. I think it's going to take some time for me to believe what's happening now. I just can't believe that they give up a whole country this easily. And just forget about the sacrifices that we made, the things that we worked so hard for. And now it's just a matter of just saving your life. It's, I think it's the worst day of my life to see what I'm seeing.

Yeah and I don't know I just feel so disappointed. I feel so disgusted and I feel so disgusted and I feel so enriched that it's like a joke what is happening is like it's like a joke and I can I can't believe and by now they are inside city I think because I just heard that two minutes ago they entered the city. And the only thing is, I have to check. We lost so many things. And I'm just losing everything. And now... I lost my house. I lost my belongings. I lost my belongings, I lost my city, I lost my country, I lost my dreams. Today is Monday, 16th August,

and we were about to leave to the airport an hour ago, but there were about two helicopters to come and take us, but for some reason it was cancelled. And then we learned that the civilian side of the airport is now under the control of the Taliban. And if we want to go to the military side, we have to pass through civilian side and there is no guarantee if we can reach there safely. So now we are back to where we were staying

last night. We are just waiting to see how things move on and if we will be able to make it to the airport sometime soon. I don't know. So you're basically stuck? Yeah, we are stuck.

They are negotiating. The Americans are negotiating with the Taliban. And maybe we'll be able to go to the airport soon. But let's see. On Sunday night, during a ceremony at the presidential palace, Taliban fighters celebrated the rebirth of what they're calling the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The name the Taliban used until their ouster in 2001 at the hands of the United States. of the United States.

In a statement, the Taliban said it had ordered its men not to harm civilians in Kabul, saying, quote, Signs of change arrived quickly across the city. Workers raced to paint over advertisements featuring women in accordance with Taliban rules. As of this morning, R is still in Kabul and still trying to get out. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Rescue workers are searching for survivors of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Haiti over the weekend, killing nearly 1,300 people.

The quake snapped water lines, blocked roads, flattened stores, and damaged hospitals. It was the latest blow to an impoverished country already in political crisis since the assassination of its president last month. Today's episode was produced by Lindsay Garrison, Annie Brown, and Rochelle Bonja, with help from Stella Tan. It was edited by Larissa Anderson and M.J. Davis-Lynn, contains original music by Dan Powell,

and engineered by Chris Wood. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Bavaro. See you tomorrow.