Afghan government officials from Farah flee to Iran
An Afghan security source: The Afghan parliamentarian from Farah province, the army commander in the province and the head of the provincial council fled to Iran. Afghanistan news on live map in English. Conflicts of Afghanistan: Taliban and Islamic State
afghanistan.liveuamap.com
Iran is watching Afghanistan and considering its options. Fatemiyoun could easily be deployed by Iran. They would most likely sweep the western provinces with ease.
Perhaps Iran could deploy them in exchange for influence in Afghanistan ? As the Afghan government becomes more desperate they will inevitably be willing to offer more concessions.
Amid the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Taliban leaders claim Iran is mobilizing its proxy militia the Fatemiyoun for civil war within Afghanistan.
www.pbs.org
The following excerpt is from the article above
Estimates put the number of Fatemiyoun troops Iran deployed to Syria, to fight ISIS on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad, as high as 20,000 or even 50,000. In
Leaving Afghanistan, sources told FRONTLINE that Iran is now sending Fatemiyoun back to Afghanistan, with thousands already in the country.
The Afghan government has not explicitly outlawed the Fatemiyoun and has made few public comments about the militia’s presence. Instead, Rahmatullah Nabil, the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency from 2010 to 2012 and 2013 to 2015, told
Radio Free Europe in February 2020 the Fatemiyoun didn’t pose an “immediate threat to Afghan national security,” saying several thousand had returned.
The Afghan government are already begging the Taliban to stop in exchange for a power sharing agreement.
At the end of the day though there are tens of thousands of Afghan security forces members who are trained and armed. Not to mention Afghans have an airforce and help from the US in the form of air support, funding, intelligence, etc
Like I said, 90% of the time when the Taliban take over an area, you see convoys of Afghan security forces retreating. This could be as a result of poor morale, bad leadership, corruption, lack of ammo/food, disorganization, etc However all of these members of the Afghan security forces will live to fight another day.
Only time will tell but I'm not so sure that the Taliban will be able to take big cities like Kabul very easily. The airstrikes should also take a toll on them since the Taliban are no longer in hiding. Well only time will tell. We will see.