Like malign swallows arriving ahead of season, the Taliban are gathering in Afghan orchards early this year, long before the trees have budded and the weather has warmed. Moving westward over the border from their traditional winter sanctuaries in Pakistan, and joining fighters already resident in Afghanistan’s southern provinces, over the past month they have flocked towards Kabul by foot, motorbike and truck, using the absence of US air strikes to gather around the capital, six weeks before their usual annual migration.
The Doha “peace deal” has brought them here. Scarcely has the ink dried on the agreement signed between the US and the Taliban on 29 February in the Qatari capital, and already the omens for war far exceed those for peace.
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