General Haibatullah Alizai, the last chief of staff of Afghanistan’s former government forces, says the ministry of defense had no prepared plan to defend Kabul ahead of the capital’s fall.
In an interview with an American television network on Sunday, Alizai said former President Ashraf Ghani appointed him as chief of staff in the final days of his administration and asked him just four days later to develop a plan for the defense of Kabul.
He said he had expected the ministry of defense to have a specific plan in place for securing and defending the capital, but was surprised by the lack of preparedness. According to Alizai, the Taliban were advancing rapidly at the time and entered Kabul on August 15, 2021.
Alizai added that he had also developed a plan in mid-July 2021 to prevent the Taliban’s advance, but the government’s decision-making process was extremely slow, leaving insufficient time to implement the plan.
The former army chief said that even after Ashraf Ghani and several senior government officials fled the country, he still believed that resistance against the Taliban remained possible.
He said that when he learned of the president’s departure from the country, he simply smiled and believed that the circumstances would now allow for the declaration of a military government and the continuation of resistance, as Afghan forces were still positioned around Kabul, Helmand, and several other provinces.
Alizai stressed that the president’s departure did not, in his view, mean the end of military resistance, and that he still believed there was a possibility of continuing the fight.
Writer:Saeed Sameer
