Taliban fighters inside the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on August 15. Photo / AP
Taliban fighters inside the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on August 15. Photo / AP
After 20 years of war, billions of dollars spent and countless lives lost, it took the Taliban less than two weeks to seize control of Afghanistan again.
Government forces and the Afghan Army collapsed without the support of the United States military, which invaded in 2001 after the September 11 attacks and toppled the Taliban for their support of al-Qaeda.
The US ultimately failed to build a democratic Government capable of withstanding the Taliban, despite spending $118 billion and providing two decades of military support.
US President Joe Biden was determined to withdraw all American troops by the end of this month, insisting there was no choice and he would not "pass this war" on to another President.
Taliban fighters inside the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on August 15. Photo / AP
But the US Administration was shocked by the rapid collapse of the Afghan Government.
Kabul found itself completely isolated on Sunday after the insurgents overran the anti-Taliban northern stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif and the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Like with most of the other captured cities, the seizure of power came after government forces surrendered or retreated.
Thousands of police and other government security forces abandoned their posts, uniforms, and even weapons on Sunday night as Taliban forces spread across the nation.
Reports suggested many Army members had not been paid for months, and the Taliban were offering them a small amount of money to return to their home villages.
Taliban forces surrounded the capital on Sunday night, declaring victory today.
What is the Taliban?
The Taliban are a militant group that first rose to international prominence in the 1990s.
The Taliban had been in power and governing Afghanistan since 1996 when the US declared war on the nation.
Taliban fighters pray while raising their flag at the Ghazni provincial governor's house in southeastern Afghanistan on August 15. Photo / AP
Two months after the US dropped its first bombs on Afghanistan, the Taliban were defeated and forced to flee Kabul on December 6, 2001.
Afghanistan held its first democratic election on October 9, 2004, with 70 per cent of the population turning out to vote.
The nation's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, appointed after the Taliban were thrown out in December 2001, won 55 per cent of the vote.
However, as Afghanistan worked to establish a democratic Government, the Taliban were regrouping.
The militant group joined forces in the south and east, as well as across the border in Pakistan, and launched an insurgency.
Attacks continued to worsen until 2008, when the US command asked for more troops.
In 2010, the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan peaked at 100,000 in an attempt to quell the Taliban and Islamic State.
Ten years later, on February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed a historic deal in Doha, Qatar that promised all foreign forces would leave Afghanistan by May 2021.
Afghans wait in long lines to withdraw money from Kabul Bank on August 15. Photo / AP
This included an agreement from the Taliban that peace talks would be held with Kabul.
Peace talks started in September of that year but the Taliban continued to launch attacks and targeted assassinations.
Despite that, the withdrawal of troops continued.
How did the Taliban conquer Afghanistan so quickly?
On May 1, 2021 the US and Nato started withdrawing their soldiers. That same month, American forces also withdrew from the Kandahar air base.
On July 2, Bagram air base — Afghanistan's biggest, and the nerve centre of the US-led coalition's operations — was handed over to Afghan forces.
Biden announced all US troops would be withdrawn by August 31, before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The insurgents launched lightning attacks across Afghanistan, capturing vast stretches of the hinterland as the final foreign troops began their withdrawal.
The Taliban captured their first provincial capital, Zaranj, in the southwest, on August 6.
Other major cities fell within days, including Kandahar and Herat — Afghanistan's second- and third-biggest cities respectively.
Most of the north, west and south was under Taliban control by August 13.
This is, perhaps, one of the saddest images I've seen from #Afghanistan. A people who are desperate and abandoned. No aid agencies, no UN, no government. Nothing. pic.twitter.com/LCeDEOR3lR
The Pentagon said Kabul did not appear to face an "imminent threat".
On August 15, the insurgents fully encircled the capital with the capture of Jalalabad in the east.
It left Kabul as the only city under government control.
Diplomatic missions scrambled to evacuate officials and local staff who feared reprisals from the Taliban.
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, reportedly to Tajikistan, and the Taliban entered Kabul, eventually seizing the presidential palace and declaring victory.
How is the Taliban linked to 9/11?
While al-Qaeda were responsible for the terrorist attacks against the US on September 11, 2001, the Taliban found themselves in hot water when they agreed to shelter Osama bin Laden.
"We have reached what we were seeking, the freedom of our country and the independence of our people," a spokesman for the Taliban told Al Jazeera.
The spokesman said the Taliban did not think foreign forces would "repeat their failed experience in Afghanistan again".
One of the Taliban's top officials said the real test of governing would begin this week.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who heads the Taliban's political bureau, said in a video statement that the militant group were hoping to "meet the expectations" of Afghans and resolve their problems.
The Taliban ruled out a transitional government and said they plan to declare an "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" when they win complete victory.
