Taliban on the rise in Afghanistan after US pullout

The fears that many domestic and global leaders had expressed have come true: After the withdrawal of the international forces, the civil war between the Taliban and the Afghan security forces has reignited in many places.

The Taliban troops are advancing, their attacks are hitting the civilian population hard, such as here in Lashkar Gah, a town south of Kabul, where an airstrike destroyed a hospital and a school at the weekend.

For Afghans who worked with NATO forces, the situation is becoming particularly bad. They fear revenge attacks and are trying to bring themselves and their families to safety. When the Taliban arrives, only the most essential things are packed up and taken out — often through the middle of the front line, as here on Sunday in the outskirts of Herat, west of Kabul.

The Taliban also won the battle in Kunduz at the weekend, occupying the governor's office and the police headquarters. Parts of the city have been destroyed, such as this row of shops.

In captured Kunduz, the Taliban flag is being hoisted now: a symbol of the failure of domestic forces in the struggle for Afghanistan. The withdrawal of NATO troops opened the door for the Taliban to retake power after 20 years.

Many displaced Afghans have taken refuge in Kabul, where they are forced to camp in parks because of a lack of shelters in the capital. Although many countries had claimed to offer Afghans who had worked with international troops the prospect of leaving the country, the applications often remained unanswered. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are estimated to be fleeing in the country currently.

Taliban fighters stand on a police car in Kandahar: Afghanistan's second-largest city has been captured by the radical Islamist group in recent days. Among other facilities, the governor's office and the local police station were taken under its control.

Pakistan has opened its border crossing at Chaman for people stranded in the border area. The neighboring state is the country with the second-most refugees in the world. At the end of July, the Pakistani government had announced that the country was not prepared to accept any more.

People from other provinces who had fled the Taliban flocked to the capital, Kabul. Initially, many of them were housed in a temporary refugee camp in Share-e Naw Park, from where they are now being distributed to surrounding schools and mosques.

Farzia, 28, who lost her husband in the fighting with the Taliban in Baghlan, sits with her two children (5 and 2) in a temporary refugee camp in Share-e Naw Park in Kabul. Their future is uncertain.