An Afghan refugee woman and her children take shelter in a tent in the capital city of Kabul, having fled the advancing Taliban (Uncredited, Getty Images).
Western nations are scrambling to evacuate their diplomatic corps, armed forces and private citizens from Afghanistan as the Taliban and its allies in the Haqqani network encircle the capital city of Kabul. At least 20 of 34 Afghan provincial capitals have fallen to the Taliban in the last week, including Kandahar and Herat, Afghanistan’s second and third-largest cities respectively, and Mazar-i-Sharif, the largest city in the northern provinces. The US-led Coalition conducted airstrikes against Taliban positions along the main arteries to Kabul, attempting to blunt the radical militia’s lightning offensive, while reports circulated that the Taliban was freeing its fighters and sympathizers from Pol-e Charkhi prison on the outskirts of the capital.
Warning signs of the Taliban’s growing momentum and the Afghan government’s imminent collapse are mounting this weekend. Thousands of refugees streamed into Kabul as Afghan president Ghani took to the airwaves to assure his people that “extensive consultations at home and abroad” were underway, while rumors of his impending resignation swirled on social media. Five of the Afghan National Army’s (ANA) seven infantry corps have surrendered or dissolved, while amateur video footage showed Taliban forces in possession of hundreds of US made transports and weapons, including tanks, Humvees, MRAP’s, artillery, and even Blackhawk helicopters. The staggering advance has caused US intelligence agencies to revise their prognosis regarding a complete Taliban takeover of the country to less than 90 days, and have suggested that a new Taliban regime in Afghanistan would afford international jihadist networks such as al-Qaeda the kind of territorial base of operations they have not possessed since before the US invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001.
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In the wake of Taliban re-conquest have come reports of shuttered businesses, summary executions of captured soldiers, and forced marriages. After two decades of social and educational advancement for Afghan women, the Taliban are re-imposing the harshest measures of Sharia law, including the requirement to wear a full burqa in public and for women to travel with male chaperones. Local families are being coerced under threat of violence and extortion to give their unmarried daughters to Taliban fighters as war brides. The houses of female members of Afghanistan’s parliament in Herat were searched and their vehicles confiscated after the Taliban took the city.
Afghanistan’s underground churches, part of the second-fastest growing discipleship movement in the world, now find themselves under the watchful eye of an Islamic cabal that will not hesitate to enforce capital punishment for the Sharia “crime” of Christian evangelism, with some underground church leaders reporting that they have already received threatening letters from the Taliban indicating that the radical militia knows who they are and what they are doing.
As Afghanistan is plunged back into the abyss of Taliban rule, we would ask the Maranatha global family to lift up urgent prayers and petitions for the Afghan people at-large, and for the underground believers in particular. We pray that the God of All Comfort would embolden the believers with a joy and peace that surpasses understanding, that they might be a bright light to their communities in an increasingly dark season. We pray that the international community would be granted divine courage and wisdom in confronting the Taliban, and that the Taliban offensive would be reversed. Most of all, we pray that the the unwavering witness of those who overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimonies would open Afghan eyes, even jihadist eyes, and that what the enemy has meant for evil in Afghanistan, God would use for the good of His people and the glory of His Name.
Maranatha.
Sources:
Afghans Tell of Executions, Forced ‘Marriages’ in Taliban-Held Areas - WSJ
Afghan women under threat as Taliban return brings forced marriage (trust.org)
Taliban could isolate Kabul in 30 days, takeover in 90 - U.S. intelligence | Reuters
Afghanistan: Panic and disbelief as thousands flee Taliban onslaught - BBC News
