'With masters defeated, the slaves can't fight': Taliban eye victory after U.S. exit

With Afghan troops in retreat and soon to reduce essential American air support, Taliban commanders are voicing exuberance about quickly seizing full control of the united states and re-establishing their version of an Islamic state.

Unprecedented peace talks between the insurgents and Afghan government continue to flutter, and as violence rages across Afghanistan, militants claim to took nearly 30 districts because the U.S. started its final troop withdrawal in early May.

With supply lines stretched, Afghan forces have already been clobbered by Taliban fighters in recent weeks, forcing the country's military leaders to strategically retreat from numerous rural districts.

"The arrogant Americans thought they could wipe the Taliban from the facial skin of the planet earth," said Mullah Misbah, an insurgent commander in violence-wracked Ghazni province, throughout a recent interview with AFP. "But the Taliban defeated the Americans and their allies, and, God willing, an Islamic regime will be established in Afghanistan now that they are leaving."

In recent weeks, the Taliban took two districts in Ghazni, an integral province straddling the highway connecting the administrative centre with the former insurgent stronghold of Kandahar to the south.

They are now within almost every province and are encircling several major cities -- a technique the militants used in the mid-1990s if they overran the majority of Afghanistan until ousted by a U.S.-led invasion following the 2001 September 11 attacks.

"When the Americans leave, they (the federal government forces) won't survive even for five days," said Misbah, who describes himself as a Taliban public health official in Ghazni.

He took AFP on a tour of a hospital in Andar district captured by the militants -- its walls pockmarked with bullet holes.

"When the masters have already been defeated, the slaves cannot fight the Islamic Emirate," he said, rattling off a series of orders over the air.

The Taliban's military gains have triggered speculation they are preparing to launch an all-out assault on Afghanistan's cities once the Americans and their international allies leave.

Afghan authorities insisted they can handle reversing the Taliban's momentum, citing their opponents' insufficient heavy weapons and vulnerability to air strikes from Afghan forces.

However the insurgents are confident of success once U.S. troops are fully withdrawn before a September deadline set by President Joe Biden.

"You know and everybody else knows that the Americans and their NATO allies and the Kabul administration have been defeated 100 percent," said Qari Hafizullah Hamdan, a Taliban commander from the local district of Qarabagh.

The Ministry of Defense didn't respond to a obtain comment.

Regardless of the talk of a swift military victory, a Taliban spokesman said decisions on the war's future course finally rested with the leadership.

"It's natural that military commanders want to use force," said the spokesman. "But decisions are made at the very top... so any rulings created by the leadership council will be implemented, and the commanders will observe."

From the frontline, the Taliban are increasingly overseeing civil projects inside their territory.

Misbah and his troops have run their hospital for just two years, where they distribute medicine to local residents and treat wounded jihadists and civilians alike.

Injured Taliban fighters tend to be moved in and from the hospital, however, in order to avoid air strikes.

The facility also hosts medical classes conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which offers similar courses to government forces in Ghazni.

"With this training we are able to help the wounded on the battlefield," said Taliban fighter Hafizullah, as ICRC medics offered instructions to militants nearby.

The ICRC often works with both sides incompatible zones in order to get access to civilian populations.

During AFP's tour of the insurgent hospital in Andar district, government forces were not visible for many miles around the facility.

Misbah said that most patients there have been civilians injured in bombings by enemy forces, but offered little evidence to aid his claim.

Both Taliban and government regularly exaggerate casualties inflicted on the adversaries, while also accusing each other of overseeing rights violations, like the targeting of civilians.

Sporting long beards and turbans, Taliban fighters armed with machine guns were seen beyond your hospital and over the countryside, mingling with villagers carrying out their daily chores as ladies in burqas worked the fields.

The single mud track that connects Andar district with the provincial capital is lined with mud houses and farms, some with solar panels to power water pumps.

The Taliban's growing presence close by has spurred fears that the insurgents are near launching another bloody assault on Ghazni city -- because they did in 2018, torching the primary bazaar and killing scores of civilians.

"The Taliban are in the edge of Ghazni city," said local businessman Ahmad Rahim. "There is no security here."

The town continues to buzz with busy markets and traffic jams, but by sunset most shops are shuttered as the sound of gunfire and mortar shells reverberate across the countryside.

"Very quickly, Afghans will experience joy and full freedom," said commander Hamdan.