The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) wildly underestimated the speed at which the Taliban (terrorist group, banned in Russia) would take over the Afghan capital, according to an official protocol seen by newspaper Bild
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) wildly underestimated the speed at which the Taliban (terrorist group, banned in Russia) would take over the Afghan capital, according to an official protocol seen by newspaper Bild.
The German news outlet said that BND made a "miscalculation of historical proportions" when it briefed the government on how long it expected Kabul to keep Islamist militants at bay.
A protocol of the cabinet's crisis meeting last Friday shows that Berlin was led to believe that "Kabul's takeover by the Taliban before 11.9 is rather unlikely," the daily quoted it as saying.
BND predicted that the flight of the Afghan elite would "expedite the process" but said that the Taliban had "at the moment no interest" in seizing control of Kabul by force.
As of Sunday morning, the German government was still convinced that Kabul was days away from falling and planned the evacuation accordingly. Taliban militants entered the Afghan presidential palace later that day.
