Leaked Audio File Attributed to Late Massoud Calls Iran Weak & A Hypocrite

Despite years of training and supply of modern warfare by the US, the Afghan army lost the ability to resist the Taliban insurgents and collapsed when the withdrawal of all US forces was underway.

The fall of the well-equipped Afghan army has raised many questions and in the last year and a half Afghan and foreign civil and military officials have been talking about it.

In the SIGAR report, Ashraf Ghani's government has been criticised for not reducing the dependence of the Afghan army on American forces and for not having a "national security strategy" for the post-foreign forces era.

SIGAR stressed that former President Ashraf Ghani often replaced commanders of the National Army and appointed people loyal to him based on ethnicity, which led to the politicisation of the army.

SIGAR believes that while corruption had weakened the Afghan army, there had not been any political will to fight it.

SIGAR has also criticised the United States for keeping the army dependent on foreign forces.

According to SIGAR, after signing the Doha agreement with the Taliban in 2020, the international forces airstrikes decreased and the Taliban started taking control of more territories in Afghanistan. SIGAR believes that the Afghan army had not been used to fighting the Taliban without air support.

On the other hand, it became difficult for the Afghan army to equip the troops on the battlefield because it did not have enough air support capabilities.

In 2019, the US conducted nearly 7,500 airstrikes across Afghanistan, and it facilitated the Afghan army to advance in the battlefields and take control of more territories.

According to SIGAR's assessment, the Taliban utilised the tactical, leadership, and logistical weaknesses of the Afghan army. The group also focused on media and social media in psychological warfare against the Afghan security forces and weakened more the morale of the soldiers.

SIGAR added that despite spending 90 billion dollars in 20 years, the US built an army in Afghanistan whose structure had been similar to the US army. However, the Afghan army lacked the facilities, leadership, and skills available in the US army.

Earlier, Shehbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan announced that more than 20 victims are Pakistani citizens.

According to the Italian authorities, there are 12 children among the victims.

The boat, which had been carrying refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, had left Turkey in the past week.

According to the Italian authorities, about 200 refugees had been on board, of which 81 people have been rescued and about 30 people are still missing.

The German Embassy in Afghanistan said that after the recent tragedy in Bulgaria where 18 Afghan refugees have died, another human tragedy has been the sinking of the boat in Italy where several Afghan citizens have lost their lives.

According to reports, the wooden boat sank on Sunday after hitting a rock.

Sources told Afghanistan International last week that the Turkish government plans to hand over the consulate general of Afghanistan in Istanbul to the Taliban.

Taliban representatives have been present at the Afghan embassy in Ankara over the past few months. Recently, the group has also dismissed three diplomats of the former Afghan government in the Afghan embassy in Ankara.

During this week, it is the second Afghan diplomatic mission that the has been handed over to the Taliban.

On Sunday, the Islamic Republic of Iran officially handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the representatives of the Taliban.

Diplomatic representatives of the Taliban are also present in a number of other Afghan embassies including in Pakistan, China and Russia.

Iranian officials deny the handover of the Afghan embassy, while the Taliban representatives have taken control of the affairs in Tehran.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic has also emphasised that it has not received any documents or equipment belonging to the Afghan Embassy in Tehran.

The former diplomats in the Afghan embassy in Tehran had said that they have handed over the key of the embassy premises to the ministry of foreign affairs of Iran.

Taliban diplomats officially started their work at the Afghan embassy in Tehran on Sunday.

Dozens of diplomats and employees of the Afghan embassy in Tehran stopped working in protest against the Islamic Republic's decision to hand over the embassy to the Taliban.

Taliban officials have repeatedly announced their control over the embassy since Sunday and said that their representatives have been sent from Kabul to Tehran to run the embassy affairs.

The Iranian decision over the handover of Afghan embassy to the Taliban has been met with wide ranging reactions. Among others, the National Resistance Front called it "questionable" and the National Resistance Council for Salvation of Afghanistan called it "contrary to the national interests of Afghanistan".

Also, several Afghan immigrants in Iran have protested against the Iranian government’s decision.

Even the Iranian daily, Jomhori Islami, Tehran edition, wrote on Monday that entrusting the Afghan embassy to "a terrorist group" whose rule is temporary is very dangerous.

According to the immigrants during the past three weeks, they have not received any response from the UN.

Following the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021, thousands of Afghan citizens fled to neighbouring countries to protect their lives.

Groups of these asylum seekers, temporarily staying in neighbouring countries, have sent their asylum requests to the embassies of Western countries and UN offices.