Anti-Taliban protests swell in Afghanistan, as U.S Military ‘cannot guarantee evacuating everyone’

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Chairman Mark Milley have expressed surprised at the speed of the collapse of the Afghan government at the hands of the Taliban, saying those who have backed the U.S. are currently at risk.

When asked whether the U.S. has the capability to go out and collect Americans, Defense Secretary Austin said that they do not have the capability to go out and gather large amounts of people.

The military top brass who said this during a Wednesday press conference also disclosed that the country is, however, seeking to evacuate Americans and others from the country, adding that the swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan had not been anticipated.

“I have previously said from this podium and in sworn testimony before Congress that the intelligence clearly indicated multiple scenarios were possible. One of those was an outright Taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of the Afghan Security Forces and the government,” said Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Chairman, Mark Milley.

But Milley noted that the estimated time period for a swift collapse “ranged from weeks, to months, and even years, following our departure. There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.”

Milley said that U.S. troops, American citizens, and Afghans who have backed the U.S. are currently at risk.

He said that the American military intends “to successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan,” noting that they represent “priority number one.”

“In addition, we intend to evacuate those who’ve been supporting us for years, and we’re not gonna leave ’em behind. And we will get out as many as possible,” Milley said.

The military is working to evacuate people from the Kabul airport.

Milley noted that the U.S. State Department ‘is working with the Taliban to facilitate safe passage of American citizens, U.S. passport holders, to the airport.’

“We have capability to do other things if necessary.” In response to a question, he indicated that going to get people would represent a policy decision, and said that “if directed we have capabilities that can execute whatever we’re directed.”

Meanwhile, anti-Taliban sentiments have continued to grow in the Gulf nation, as the city of Jalalabad was rocked, Wednesday, by protests after Afghans dismantled flags of Taliban hoisted in the city by the Islamists.

It is reported that no fewer than two people when gunmen believed to be Taliban shot at protesters who had gathered at the city’s Pashtunistan Square to pull dowm the Taliban flag.

A black-on-white Taliban flag that was waving at a roundabout in Jalalabad, located about 115km east of the capital Kabul, was removed and replaced with the black, red and green flag of the previous Afghan government on Wednesday morning, Aljazeera reported.

Video circulating on social media showed the crowd at the city’s Pashtunistan Square dispersing as the sound of gunshots rang out across the busy traffic intersection.

In a second video, dozens of protesters could be seen waving Afghan flags as they walked down a street, with bystanders whistling their support.

Jalalabad is the traditional hub of annual independence day celebrations in Afghanistan, which take place every year on August 19 to commemorate the date when the British government recognised Afghan independence in 1919, ending the third Anglo-Afghan war.

It was also reported that gunshots were heard from a central square in Daronta district, just outside Jalalabad, when people there also replaced a Taliban flag.

Despite the seamless transition from the previous government to one controlled by the Taliban, the situation in Afghanistan remained tense, Aljazeera reports.

“We are getting reports of very serious disturbances in Jalalabad,” a reporter said, stressing the importance of the city as a main trading hub with Afghanistan’s eastern neighbour Pakistan.

“Since we have seen the arrival of the Taliban, they have gradually been removing Afghanistan’s national flags and replacing them with the Taliban flag. We have seen that in Kabul. A lot of people are not happy with that, but by and large, they had to put up with [it].

“In Jalalabad, they have not put up with that. There has been resistance to that by a fairly sizeable part of the community there.”

Reporting from Kabul, Al Jazeera’s Charlotte Bellis said the protests have expanded beyond Jalalabad to several other provinces.

“People are very upset that the flag was taken down and that the Taliban flag has been raised,” said Bellis.

She added: “That isn’t the only flashpoint in Afghanistan today. There is ongoing chaos at the airport where the Taliban is still trying to hold people off from reaching the airport, breaching the security perimeter and having a repeat of what happened on Monday when thousands of people made their way onto the tarmac and disrupted evacuation flights.”

Also on Wednesday, a statue of a prominent Shia Muslim militia leader who fought against the Taliban during the Afghan civil war in the 1990s was destroyed in central Bamiyan province, according to photographs circulating on social media.

Oracle Today had earlier in the week reported that another round of civil war loomed in the country as anti-Taliban militias gathered in parts of the country in preparation for what is seen as resistance to the Taliban rule.

On Tuesday, barely a few hours after the Taliban called for cessation of hostilities following a takeover of Afghanistan, ousted Vice President, Amrullah Saleh, refused to concede power to the Islamists.

Saleh said on Twitter on Tuesday he remains in Afghanistan and is the ‘legitimate caretaker president.’

The VP who had said after a security meeting chaired by then President Ashraf Ghani last week that he was proud of the armed forces, said the government would do all it could to strengthen resistance to the Taliban.

However, in his Twitter message, Saleh vowed not to surrender after the Taliban took control of Kabul, overthrowing the government, as he declared that he will not surrender, but rather fight the Taliban.

The vice president, however, left Kabul and retreated to the last remaining government stronghold, the Panjshir Valley northeast of Kabul.

“I won’t disappoint millions who listened to me. I will never be under one ceiling with the Taliban. NEVER,” Saleh wrote in English via his Twitter handle.

Saleh it was also gathered is taking refuge with the son of his former mentor and notable anti-Taliban fighter, Ahmed Shah Massoud, in Panjshir, a mountainous redoubt tucked into the Hindu Kush.

Saleh and Massoud’s son, who command a militia force, are beginning to gather the first pieces of a guerilla movement to confront the Taliban. Anti-Taliban fighters were said to be regrouping in Panjshir.

A resident of the community was cited to have vowed: “We will not allow the Taliban to enter Panjshir and will resist with all our might and power, and fight them.”