The Taliban captured two large Afghan cities on Thursday, the second and third largest in the country after Kabul, and a strategic provincial capital.
The capture of Kandahar and Herat marks the biggest prices so far for the Taliban, who captured 12 of the 34 provincial capitals of Afghanistan in a one-week lightning strike.
The capture of the city of Ghazni, meanwhile, cuts off a major highway connecting the Afghan capital, Kabul, with the country’s southern provinces, all part of an insurgent push some 20 years after US and NATO troops invaded and overthrew the Taliban government.
Kabul itself is not yet directly threatened, but the casualties and fighting elsewhere are tightening the grip of the resurgent Taliban, who are now estimated to hold more than two-thirds of the country and continue their offensive.
US and UK begin evacuation
As security deteriorated rapidly, the United States planned to dispatch 3,000 soldiers to evacuate some staff from the US embassy in Kabul. Separately, Britain said around 600 soldiers would be deployed in the short term to assist British nationals in leaving the country.
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Thousands of Afghans have fled their homes fearing that the Taliban will once again impose a brutal, repressive government that virtually eliminates women’s rights and carries out public amputations, stoning and executions. Peace talks in Qatar remain stalled, despite diplomats meeting all day.
The latest assessment by US Military Intelligence suggests that Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days, and that if current trends continue, that Taliban could gain full control of the country within a few months. The Afghan government could be forced to pull back to defend the capital and few other cities in the coming days if the Taliban maintain their momentum.
Afghan armed forces collapse
The onslaught represents a staggering collapse of the Afghan armed forces and begs the question of where the over $ 830 billion the US Department of Defense has spent on fighting, training these troops and rebuilding efforts – particularly as a Taliban militant in America-made Humvees and pickups with M-16s hung over their shoulders.
In the days of the fighting, the Afghan security forces and the government did not respond to repeated questions from journalists, but issued video communiqués that downplayed them the Taliban advance.
In Herat, Taliban fighters stormed past the Grand Mosque in the historic city – which dates back to 500 BC. Witnesses reported sporadic shooting at a government building while the rest of the city fell silent under insurgent control.
Herat had been under militant attack for two weeks, with one wave weakened by the arrival of warlord Ismail Khan and his troops. But on Thursday afternoon, Taliban fighters broke through the city’s defenses, later saying they were in control.
Afghan lawmaker Semin Barekzai also admitted the case to the city and said some officials had fled. Witnesses reported seeing Taliban fighters who were once incarcerated in Herat prison now roam freely on the streets.
It was not immediately clear what had happened to Khan, who had previously been attacked by his troops in a government building.
Kandahar, Ghazni fall
In Kandahar, the Taliban confiscated the governor’s office and other buildings, witnesses said. The governor and other officials fled the onslaught and took a flight to Kabul, added the witnesses. They refused to be publicly named as the defeat has not yet been recognized by the government.
The Taliban had previously attacked a prison in Kandahar and released detainees there, officials said.
On Thursday, the militants hoisted their white flags with an Islamic creed over the city of Ghazni, just 130 kilometers southwest of Kabul.
Amanullah Kamrani, a member of the Ghazni provincial council, claimed the provincial governor and police chief had made an agreement with the Taliban to flee after the surrender. Taliban videos and photos are said to show the governor’s convoy driving freely past insurgents as part of the deal.
Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Mirwais Stanekzai later said the governor and his deputies had been arrested over the alleged deal. The officers could not be reached immediately to comment.
Stanekzai also confirmed in a video message that parts of Ghanzi had fallen, despite insisting that state security forces “exist” in the city.
The loss of Ghazni, which lies along the Kabul-Kandahar highway, could make replenishment and government troops difficult to move, and could push the capital from the south.
During the week-long lightning strike by the Taliban, the militants captured nine other provincial capitals across the country. Many are located in the northeast corner of the country and are also pushing Kabul from that direction.
In southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban, heavy fighting continued in Lashkar Gah, where surrounded government forces hoped to hold the capital of Helmand province.
Nasima Niazi, a MP from Helmand, criticized the ongoing air strikes on the area, saying civilians were likely to have been wounded and killed.
“The Taliban used civil houses to protect themselves and the government carried out air strikes without paying any attention to the civilian population,” she said.
With Afghan air power limited and in disarray, flight tracking data suggested B-52 bombers, F-15 fighter jets, drones and other U.S. Air Force aircraft were involved in fighting across the country, according to the Australia-based Security company The Cavell Group.
US Air Force Major Nicole Ferrara, a Central Command spokeswoman, admitted that American forces “have carried out several air strikes in the past few days in defense of our Afghan partners.” However, she declined to give details of the attacks or to discuss Afghan complaints about civilian casualties.
Late on Thursday evening, an Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss developments, said the Taliban had also captured much of western Badghis province – but not the province’s army corps and intelligence. A Taliban tweet claimed the insurgents had captured the provincial governor’s seat, police headquarters and all other government offices.
At a meeting of diplomats in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday, the success of the Taliban offensive raised the question of whether they would ever again take part in long-lasting peace talks aimed at bringing Afghanistan into an administration that members of the includes current Afghan government and the Taliban. Instead, the group could come to power by force – or the country could split up into factional battles, as it did after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
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