Amid new security concerns, Pentagon hints at more rescues outside Kabul airport

The Pentagon on Saturday strongly hinted that U.S. troops may stage further operations outside the Kabul airport to help evacuate stranded American citizens and Afghans who aided the war effort, as the threat of violence in the capital grows amid the return of the Taliban’s top political leader and increased concern about potential attacks by the Islamic State.

The signal that U.S. troops could undertake enhanced efforts to rescue people outside the airport came as the Biden administration scrambles to fly thousands of people per day out of Afghanistan, and amid signs there were still significant bottlenecks to doing so. All gates at the Kabul airport were closed on Saturday, as crowds continued to swell inside and the U.S. government struggled to process people quickly enough to alleviate the issues

Since the evacuation began a week ago, the U.S. military has managed to remove about 17,000 people from Kabul, including 2,500 Americans, Pentagon officials said Saturday — a fraction of the 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. citizens the Biden administration estimated last week still remained in Afghanistan.

U.S. troops, traveling aboard Chinook helicopters, left the airport Thursday to retrieve 169 Americans from a nearby hotel. European commandos have conducted such missions for days, leading some U.S. lawmakers and others to suggest the Biden administration should do more to help people reach the airport.

...

...concerns that Americans could be targeted by fighters loyal to the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan. 

...north of the capital resistance fighters managed to push back Taliban forces in three districts of Baghlan province — raising the specter that the militant group may not have an absolute lock on power in the country, and that more violent battles for control could ensue.

(WaPo)

That last is a point of light. Three districts, I don't know how big they are, but that sounds real good. It sounded to the Quasis better than it did to WaPo, the former devoting a separate headline to the intel:

Resistance fighters drive Taliban from 3 districts in the mountains north of Kabul.

The Taliban faced the first armed challenge from former Afghan soldiers and villagers in the mountains north of Kabul.

The Taliban faced the first armed challenge to their rule as former Afghan soldiers, aided by villagers, drove the militants out of three districts in the mountains north of Kabul, according to former Afghan officials.

The fighting took place in remote valleys on Friday, and details of the clashes were still trickling out. But video posted on social media showed fighters and civilians tearing down the white flag of the Taliban and raising the red, green and black Afghan national flag. In a tweet, the former acting defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, called the fighters “popular resistance forces,”

How long it could survive is another question. 

Natiq Malikzada

@natiqmalikzada

Recapture of Bano district from the Taliban by the People Uprising Forces. (video)

Less than a week after the Taliban swept into Kabul, the militants are already facing the first stirrings of resistance to their renewed rule. Small groups of women, fearful that the Taliban will try to reimpose their stringent and often brutal interpretation of Islamic law, have braved retribution to publicly demand their rights. Others have simply refused to fly the Taliban’s white flag, insisting that the Afghan national flag was the only banner they wanted to fly.

Do the women have guns? Tanks? The Taliban don't care if they are women. They will simply rape, beat, stone, whip, enslave, and slaughter them. Butch up, Afghan women.Get guns or be submissive.