The government of Afghanistan is facing one of its worst crises since the end of the Taliban reign in 2001.
Following the dramatic escalation of attacks on Afghan government installations by Taliban forces and Islamic State forces, which claimed dozens of casualties across the Central Asian country this week, the top security and intelligence officials of the country have submitted their resignations.
Mohammad Haneef Atmar, longtime national security adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, considered one of the most recognizable and powerful political figures in Afghanistan, also resigned.
Many seasoned observers were surprised when President Ghani, who is a close political ally of Atmar, accepted his resignation and replaced him with Hamdullah Mohib, who was until recently Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States.
But the political crisis intensified on Sunday, when Tariq Shah Bahrami, defense minister, Wais Ahmad Barmak, interior minister, and Masoom Stanekzai, head of the national security directorate of Afghanistan, also resigned.
All three have come under intense criticism from the Afghan political opposition and the national media for failing to stop the anti-government insurgency, which is escalating in nearly every province of the country. The criticism of the three men became even more acute last week after the Taliban launched a spectacular missile attack on the presidential palace in the Afghan capital Kabul.
On Sunday, however, a presidential spokesman told media representatives that President Ghani had rejected the resignation of the three officials and asked them to remain in office as they redouble their efforts to improve Afghanistan's security.
News confirmed in the evening by the presidential palace that in a note released to the media communicated that President Ghani "did not approve the resignation [of the officials]". Instead, he "gave them the necessary instructions to improve the security situation" in the country.
Meanwhile, James Mattis, US defense secretary, on Tuesday, during a press conference in Washington on the current US strategy in Afghanistan, insisted that the Taliban would be forced to negotiate, thus ending the civil war in course in the country.