6 Afghan provincial capitals fall to Taliban in 4 days
10 August 2021
Six Afghan provincial capitals have fallen to the Taliban since Friday, Reuters notes, with the militants taking the town of Aybak on Monday and targeting northern Afghanistan's largest city, Mazar-i-Sharif.
Why it matters: The string of swift Taliban successes in the final weeks of the U.S. withdrawal has dented hopes that the Afghan military and allied militias will be able to fend off the insurgency.
- 229 Afghan districts are now under Taliban control, 66 are controlled by the government, and 112 are contested, per the Long War Journal. Most of the initial gains were in the countryside, but the Taliban is now targeting major cities.
Flashback: As of June 16, the Taliban and government controlled a roughly equal number of districts (104 and 94, respectively) with 201 contested.
- The Taliban is also targeting senior officials for assassination. Dawa Khan Menapal, who ran the government's media department, was killed on Friday, shortly after a failed assassination attempt on Afghanistan's defense minister.
What they're saying: The United Kingdom's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace was the latest to question the decision of the U.S. and NATO forces to rapidly withdraw before the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
- He told the Daily Mail that the U.K. had sought an agreement for some NATO troops to remain but "without the United States as the framework nation it had been, these options were closed off."
- A Pentagon spokesperson said Monday that "these are their provincial capitals" and it's up to the Afghan government to defend them.
What to watch: Afghan officials are seeking continued U.S. air support after the withdrawal, but the Pentagon hasn't said whether and how it would conduct such operations.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.