The Taliban insurgents strengthened their control of occupied Afghan territory on Tuesday (August 10) and now control 65% of the country’s territory as US President Joe Biden urged the country’s leaders to fight for their homeland.
According to local residents, Pulkumri, the capital of the northern Baghlan Province, fell into the hands of the Taliban on Tuesday night. According to reports, Afghan security forces are retreating to the Kraj Desert where a large military base is located in Afghanistan.
Pul-e-Khumri became the seventh regional capital controlled by Islamic radicals in about a week.
“The Afghan leaders must unite,” Biden told reporters at the White House. He said that the Afghan army has more numbers than the Taliban and must fight. “They must fight for themselves, fight for their country.”
The President of the United States stated that he does not regret his decision to withdraw troops and pointed out that Washington has spent more than $1 trillion and lost thousands of soldiers in the past 20 years. He said that the United States continues to provide large amounts of air support, food, equipment, and wages to the Afghan army.
In Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stated that he was seeking help from the militias in the area that had quarreled with him for many years. He called on civilians to defend the “democratic structure” of Afghanistan.
Taliban militants are entering a government building in Ibak, the provincial capital between the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul. Most government forces seem to have retreated.
When asked about Ibak’s living conditions, the tax official Sher Mohamed Abbas said: “The only way is to self-house arrest or find a way to leave Kabul.”
“But even Kabul is no longer a safe choice,” said Abbas, who supports the family of nine.
For many years, the north was the most peaceful area in Afghanistan, with very few Taliban in existence. The strategy of the militants appears to be to occupy the north and cross the border in the north, west and south before approaching Kabul.
The Taliban are working hard to defeat the US-backed government and re-implement strict Islamic laws in the deadlocked peace negotiations, but they encountered little resistance when they swept through Ibak on Monday.
A spokesperson for the organization’s political office told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the organization is committed to the path of negotiations in Doha and does not want it to collapse.
A senior EU official said on Tuesday that Taliban forces now control 65% of Afghanistan, threaten to occupy 11 provincial capitals, and try to deprive Kabul of traditional support from northern countries’ troops.
The government has withdrawn from hard-to-defend rural areas and focused on controlling population centers. Officials called for pressure to be put on Pakistan to prevent Taliban reinforcements and supplies from crossing the border. Pakistan denies support for the Taliban.
The United States has been carrying out some air strikes to support government forces. Defense Ministry spokesman John Kirby said that the attack had a “kinetic” impact on the Taliban, but acknowledged that there are limitations.
“No one here suggests that air strikes are a panacea that can solve all the problems of ground conditions. We have never said that before,” Kirby said.
DDisplaced family
The Taliban and government officials confirmed that Islamic insurgents have occupied six provincial capitals in the north, west and south in recent days.
The head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Gulam Bahauddin Jailani, told Reuters that 25 out of 34 provinces were fighting, and 60,000 families have been displaced in the past two months. Most people seek refuge in Kabul.
The six EU member states warned EU executive agencies not to stop the deportation of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe because they fear that the 2015-16 crisis may repeat itself, mainly due to the arrival of more than 1 million immigrants from the Middle East.
Michelle Bachelet, the head of UN human rights affairs, said that reports of illegal acts that may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity continue to appear, including “deeply disturbing reports” about summary executions of surrendered government forces.
Bachelet said: “People are rightly worried that the Taliban’s seizure of power will erase the human rights achievements of the past two decades.”
The Taliban, who were expelled after the attack on the United States on September 11, seemed to be able to move in a different direction from Mazar-e-Sharif. Its collapse will cause a devastating blow to the Ghani government.
The commander of the northern militia, Atta Mohammad Noor, vowed to “resist to my last drop of blood.” He added on Twitter: “I would rather die with dignity than die in despair.”
Washington will complete its withdrawal this month in exchange for the Taliban’s promise to prevent Afghanistan from being used for international terrorism. The Taliban promised not to attack foreign troops when they retreated, but they did not agree to a ceasefire with the government.
