it took just a few days for the taliban to sweep across afghanistan and seize territory they did not already control sometimes taking major provincial capitals with barely a shot in angerwhile much has been made of the afghan armys military collapse interviews with taliban leaders afghan politicians diplomats and other observers suggest the islamist militant movement laid the groundwork for its victory long before the events of the last week or soprepared for a harder struggle to retake control of a country they ran from 19962001 for months the insurgents said they cultivated relationships with lowlevel political and military officials as well as tribal eldersthat combined with the preannounced withdrawal of foreign troops from afghanistan some 20 years after americas longest war began shattered confidence in the westernbacked administration in kabul and encouraged people to defectthe taliban didnt want to fight battles said asfandyar mir a south asia security analyst affiliated with stanford university they instead wanted to induce a political collapsethe speed of the talibans gains surprised even them last week cities and towns fell like dominoes even in the north of the country where the taliban are traditionally weaker culminating in sundays capture of the capital kabulone taliban commander in the central province of ghazni said that once government forces could see the united states was finally leaving resistance crumbled in just a week all of afghanistans major cities from kunduz in the north to kandahar in the south had fallenit doesnt mean these afghan leaders surrendering to us had changed or become pious its because there were no more dollars he said referring to financial support the government and military had received from the west for nearly two decadesthey surrendered like goats and sheepwesternbacked president ashraf ghani fled abroad and most other members of his administration have gone into hiding and cannot be contacted ghanis own defence minister criticised his capitulationa july report from sigar the congressional watchdog body appointed to monitor the us mission in afghanistan said that in some areas afghan forces put up some level of resistance while in others they surrendered or fled in disorderas his fighters took over the presidential palace mullah abdul ghani baradar one of the main architects of victory as head of the talibans political office in doha said it was an unrivalled triumph but one that had come unexpectedly swiftlywe have reached a situation that was never expected he saidnot the same situationsuhail shaheen a taliban spokesman based in doha said large numbers of districts were secured though the kinds of contacts that have a long tradition in afghanistan where inducing rivals to switch sides has been a common tacticwe had direct talks with the security forces there and also through mediation of tribal elders and religious scholars he said all over afghanistan not in a particular province or a particular geographic locationafter being driven from power in the usbacked campaign of 2001 the taliban gradually rebuilt financed by opium and illegal mining and generally avoiding largescale