Last Friday’s assassination by Taliban stormtroopers of the Afghanistan government’s top media and information officer in Kabul serves to exacerbate the enormity of the crisis in the embattled country ahead of the pullout of US troops.

On closer reflection, the extremists have carried out their threat with calculated malevolence. The murder of Dawa Khan Minapal, the head of the government media and information centre, has occurred days after the Taliban warned it would target senior administration officials in retaliation for increased air raids.

In a sense, it is a portent of the shape of things to come and can be contextualised with President Ashraf Ghani’s high-minded lament that the US withdrawal would be rather premature not the least because of the gravity of the crisis 20 years after Nato forces stepped into Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.

The attack has coincided with the Friday prayers, a profoundly sacred occasion in the Islamic calendar. Minapal had also served as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s spokesman.

“He was well known to Afghan journalists, was a member of the inner circle of President Ghani and our understanding is that he left home to go for Friday prayers and was killed,” said local officials. Is it possible that he had alienated the Taliban by purveying the truth from the presidential perspective?

The Taliban launched violent attacks on the outskirts of Sheberghan, a provincial capital this week and during heavy clashes a pro-government militia forces’ commander loyal to Dustom was killed. The strife has been relentless and to brutal effect.

It is direly tragic that the assassinations form the curtain-raiser to the outward march of US boots on the ground. It will be a depleted inheritance for the next dispensation, which above all will have to countenance the ferocity of the Taliban.

The United Nations this week said it was deeply concerned over the safety of tens of thousands of people who have been trapped. The Security Council is scheduled to hold an open meeting on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. The discussion was requested by the Afghan government, as well as Norway and Estonia.

The last meeting of the Security Council, specifically on Afghanistan, was held in June. The situation in the conflict-ridden country has rapidly worsened since then. Western security officials concede that it is hard to even recover bodies by aid agencies. The office of the aid group, Action Against Hunger, was targeted by a bomb during fighting in the area on Thursday.

“Civilians find themselves in between warring parties. They are being displaced from their homes and are often the first victims of the conflict,” said Mike Bonke, Action Against Hunger’s Country Director in Afghanistan. In the manner of the Doha talks, the Security Council will arguably achieve little in the absence of a firm resolve to end the conflict. There is not a scintilla of hope.