Map shows sacrifice of 41 Australian soldiers in Afghanistan was for nothing as Taliban take control

The 41 Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan have died in vain as a sixth city falls to the Taliban in a week and the radical Islamic extremists sweep back into power.  

Aibak, the capital of Samangan province, fell to the jihadist group on Monday morning and tweeted that all government and police outposts had been ‘cleared’. 

The latest Taliban victory comes just eight weeks after the last Australian troops pulled out of the country after a 20 year mission. 

Australian military were sent to Afghanistan in 2001 in the wake of 9/11 on Operation Slipper to ‘contain the threat from international terrorism’.

The Taliban now controls more than half of Afghanistan’s territory and is fighting for control of dozens of other provinces, including the cities of Herat, Lashkar Gah and Kandahar 

Sergeant Andrew Russell, 33, of the SAS became the first ADF personnel to be killed in the action when his patrol vehicle hit a land mine on February 16, 2002.

Since then, 40 more have been killed in the conflict and scores more maimed and wounded on a mission which was initially a success in overcoming the Taliban extremists.

Now though, since Australia’s retreat, they are murdering their way back to power again.  

When the Australian forces withdrew in June, former chief of army, retired Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, questioned what had been achieved.

‘Was it worth it?’ he asked. ‘Well as we face the prospect of a savage retribution by the now ascendant Taliban, and I think a return in some ways to the dark ages for Afghanistan — it’s really hard to say that it was worth it.’

Sefatullah Samangani, deputy governor of Samangan province, confirmed the Taliban are now in ‘full control’ of Aibak – just a day after they captured Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul and Taloqan.

The cities of Zaranj and Sheberghan also fell late last week. Fierce fighting is still underway in Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat, while the Taliban claims that Mazar-i-Sharif – the largest city in Afghanistan’s north – was attacked today.

Meanwhile, pilots are deserting Afghan forces after being targeted for assassinations, leaving government troops largely without air support that will be key to winning the battle against the Taliban. 

Hamidullah Azimi, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the Afghan army, was killed on Saturday when a bomb attached to his car exploded near the capital Kabul

Azimi’s assassination (scene, pictured) along with the murder of seven other pilots has caused a collapse of morale that has seen 19 colleague desert their posts in recent weeks

Eight pilots have been killed in recent weeks, with Hamidullah Azimi – a Black Hawk pilot – the latest to die after being blown up near the capital Kabul on Saturday.

Azimi was killed by a sticky bomb attached to his car which detonated, wounding five civilians who were nearby. 

Speaking anonymously to The Times, one pilot said he knows of 19 colleagues who have deserted the air force in recent weeks because the government could not guarantee their safety.

‘I have been flying for ten years. From the day I put on my uniform I swore to defend my country until the last drop of blood… but seeing my friends assassinated… I do not feel safe,’ he said.

‘I have to change the car I use every single day, borrowing my friends’ cars to drive to work. I can’t spend time outside my home. I can’t go shopping, not even get a haircut, to protect my identity and reduce the risk.

‘I am considering leaving my job. If the government can guarantee my family’s safety I will stay on base and fight forever.’

The Taliban has also been targeting media personalities with Toofan Omar, a radio station host and activist supporting independent media, shot dead in Kabul today.

Meanwhile Nematullah Hemat, a journalist working in Helmand province, was kidnapped on Monday by the Taliban, local officials said.

Afghans survey the damage caused by fighting between the Taliban and government forces in Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province which has now fallen to the Islamists

The apparent attack on Mazar-i-Sharif – which has been dismissed by government officials as ‘propaganda’ comes after the Taliban captured a major Afghan army base at Hazrat Sultan, halfway between Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif.

Videos posted on pro-Islamist social media channels showed Taliban units at the base, which was reportedly captured without a shot being fired.

Some 50 vehicles, including armoured trucks, were left behind and have fallen into Taliban hands. 

Atta Mohammad Noor, the strongman leader of Mazar’s, vowed on Monday to fight for the city – saying there would be ‘resistance until the last drop of my blood’.

‘I prefer dying in dignity than dying in despair,’ he tweeted.

The Afghan air force had been hit particularly hard by US and NATO withdrawal, as an army of contractors who had maintained aircraft and helicopters used by government forces quit the country with them.

Around a third of the military’s planes known to be out of action due to damage or a lack of spare parts, with morale among pilots running low due to non-stop sorties and supply missions they are forced to fly.

Morale then took a further beating due to the assassinations, with pilots seemingly unprotected even in the country’s heavily-defended capital. 

Smoke rises from the remains of shops that were destroyed in fighting between Taliban and government forces in the city of Kunduz

The Afghan army’s air force represents possibly its single-largest advantage over the Taliban, which has ranks filled with experienced and battle-hardened fighters but can field no aircraft.

But that advantage is fast evaporating – with the US forced to fly bombers and drones in from Oman to try and tip battles in the government’s favour.

Those sorties have managed to halt Taliban assaults such as the one underway in Lashkar Gah, which looked ready to fall last week before US bombs started dropping.

But Taliban commanders are quietly confident that the the US with eventually withdraw its air support.

‘These airstrikes… will not last much longer,’ one commander told The Times.

The US began withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan in April this year after Biden re-committed himself to an earlier Trump pledge to end America’s ‘forever war’.

Initially due to be complete by the symbolic date of September 11, sources on the ground say the withdrawal is already all-but over.

NATO’s own withdrawal is also thought to be effectively at an end, leaving Afghan security forces under the command of President Ashraf Ghani to defend the country.  

The Taliban struck hard and fast as western forces withdrew, rapidly capturing swathes of Afghan countryside and overrunning government outposts.

Some were conquered in fierce gun battles, but in other locations government troops either surrendered or were paid-off to leave their posts.

Ghani played down the Taliban’s initial successes, claiming the retreat was tactical and that he was withdrawing forces into cities which would be easier to defend.

But worrying early signs emerged when the Taliban starting eating up territory not just in its traditional southern hinterlands of Kandahar and Helmand, but also in the north along the borders with Tajikistan and Iran.

Then came the assault on the cities, and so-far Ghani’s forces have not fared well.

Since Friday, they have lost control of no fewer than five provincial capitals: Kunduz and Sar-e-Pul, capitals of Kunduz and Sar-e-Pul provinces, and Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province.

Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, has also been left on the brink with Kandahar also under sustained attack.

Only in Herat, in the north west, has the government met with any degree of success as its troops drove back a Taliban offensive last week – though fighting has since resumed and intensified.

Ghani’s only hope is that the Taliban can be fought to a stalemate, forcing the Islamists to return to the negotiating table and strike a power-sharing deal.

The white flag of the Taliban is pictured flying over the main square of Kunduz after it was captured by Islamist fighters on Sunday

But if major regional capitals such as Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and Herat fall, then it will likely spur the militants on to attack Kabul.

If they can take the capital it will return them to full control of the country and undo two decades of western intervention in just a few months.

But analysts have also warned of another, worst-case scenario: That neither side is able to strike the killing blow while peace talks prove inconclusive.

In that case, the conflict could draw out into a long a bloody civil war of the kind seen in the 1990s and from which the Taliban first emerged.

If that happens, Afghanistan would likely become a haven for terror groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS.  

Former British Army commander General Sir Richard Barrons told the BBC : ‘We run the risk of terrorist entities re-establishing in Afghanistan to bring harm in Europe and elsewhere.’

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