About 20 State Department officials working at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on July 13 sent an internal memo to Secretary Antony Blinken and another senior cabinet official warning of the potential collapse of the government. Afghan capital shortly after August 31, the deadline for the US withdrawal. troops.
The information was published by the US newspaper The Wall Street Journal on Thursday (19), based on reports from a US official and someone familiar with the diplomatic representation telegram.
The note, sent through the State Department’s confidential channel, warned of the Taliban’s rapid seizure of territory and the subsequent downfall of Afghan security forces. The report also contained recommendations on how to mitigate the crisis and speed up the evacuation, depending on the vehicle, and called on the ministry to use harsher language to describe the atrocities committed by the extremist group.
In May, there had already been reports of fighters surrounding military posts in the countryside, leaving surrender or death as an option for village chiefs.
The contents of the telegram are revealed after the Chief of Staff of the United States, Mark Milley, claimed on Wednesday (18) that intelligence reports did not indicate that the fall of the Afghan government with the advance Taliban arrive so quickly. .
“There was nothing that I or anyone else had seen that indicated a collapse of the military and government in 11 days,” the general said at a press conference with the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – the first of the two since the Islamic fundamentalist group returned to power.
A report by the American newspaper The New York Times, however, pointed out that intelligence agencies had predicted that if the fundamentalist group took cities, a cascading collapse could quickly occur and the Afghan security forces were at great risk of disintegration. In public, however, President Joe Biden said it was unlikely to happen so quickly.
In July, reports questioned whether the Afghan government could retain the capital. On the 8th of this month, Biden said the accident was unlikely and that there would be no chaotic evacuation of Americans, as at the end of the Vietnam War.
The departure of planes from the capital’s airport after the seizure of power on Sunday (15) was however marked by desperate people trying to board and planes with hundreds on board. At least seven dead, and confusion continued Wednesday, with 17 injured.
The warnings raise questions about why members of the Democratic government and military planners in Afghanistan appear unprepared to deal with the Taliban’s final advance on Kabul, including the failure to provide security. airport and to send thousands of additional troops back to the country to protect the remaining United States. Withdrawal.